The Never Lost Sons
by Sheev The Senate Palpatine
Summary: The 2nd and 11th, two that could save the Imperium from it's grimdark future or plunge it in to even darker chaos. They will fight across their homeworlds and the galaxy and when the time comes will they stand fast or turn their backs on mankind?
1. Mist walkers

1\. Mist walkers

It was calm, so calm and quiet, his ears had never been exposed to air so all the sounds he knew were muffled and far away. It was also dark, his eyes hadn't developed fully yet. A light cut through the darkness, well not so much a light but an aura, it was warm despite him not knowing cold he knew this was warmth. A voice cast away the silence, it was powerful, powerful enough to cut through the liquid that was his world and come through clearly.

"They are my greatest creations" it said as the light passed by him, "They will lead my men and unify all man"

There was another voice, it wasn't as powerful so he knew not what it said but he knew it was there. As his eye adjusted to the overwhelming aura of the light, he could sense another next to it, weaker but there, and he soon felt the warmth of more auras around him. Twenty in all, they were like him although they didn't speak and he didn't think any of them were listening. The great light soon retreated and he was left among his brothers, it wasn't so dark anymore.

Time must have passed but he didn't know how to measure the passing of it, the light returned but as quickly as it came it fell away in to darkness. The world was no longer calm it was turbulent, it was no longer quite but deafening. He could hear voices, they weren't strong and powerful like the light but low whispers, he didn't know what they were saying but he didn't like it. He could feel the voices' cold hands wrap around him, grabbing at his very soul. The world was no longer warm and calm but cold and violent.

Time must have passed but he didn't know how to measure it, the world became calm again, it was warm and soft voices could be heard. He opened his eyes for the first time and the first thing he saw was the fog.

The planet of Solaero was covered in fog. Legend has it that man lived all over the planet, they built cities in the deep valleys and created marvels so wonderous they wanted for nothing, they became overconfident and would boast they were the equal to the gods so the gods taught them a lesson. The gods that protected man from the horrors of the underworld unlocked the gates they had kept shut since time immemorial. First came the fog, so thick that a man can barely see his outstretched hand through it but ultimately harmless, after the fog came the beasts, monstrosities from the depth of the underworld that hunted man. Man's weapons didn't work against the monsters and so they were forced to abandon their great cities and made their homes on top of the tallest peaks of the world.

Most created a simple life for themselves, villages dotted every mountain with cables and bridges connecting them all, but not everything could be grown on mountain soil and the herds they kept weren't always large enough so a brave few would descend and face the horrors of the fog. The mist walkers were brave men who hunted the more docile beasts that called the fog home and scavenged whatever lost tech they could find, many would descend and few would return but what they brought back could be the difference between a village starving or a village making it through another year, whether by abundance of food or lack of mouths to feed.

He kneeled at the peak, the thick blanket of clouds below him and a clear blue sky above him, he kneeled in front of a small shrine with hand caved statues inside and the skulls of great beasts surrounding it. It would be his third time descending, more than anyone else in the village and close to the world record, he knelt in silent prayer as he petitioned the gods for his life and possibly a good haul. The man rose, he was no higher than 6 feet and his face was covered in thick beard hair, making him look older than he was.

"Alright all of you get up we need to prepare to descend" he encouraged some slightly younger men that were kneeling behind him to stand

"So what's it like in the fog?" one of the men asked, overly excited

"Scary" he answered, not as cheerful as the other men, "You should rely more on your ears than your eyes"

"Is it really that thick?" another asked

"In some places yes but most you can probably see the guy next to you"

"Have you ever seen a beast?"

"You don't see them and you don't want to"

He answered the questions of the eager young men as they walked the path down in to the village, he looked at each of their faces and couldn't help but wonder which, if any, would make it back. They soon entered the village and their people were waiting for them, the men dispersed amongst the crowd to say goodbye to family members and collect what they needed for the expedition.

"I heard ancient humans believed that three was a lucky number or was it unlucky" A woman approached the man carrying a large pack for him, it was old and worn covered in animal teeth and wooden charms, "Aldean, promise me you'll be safe"

"I always am" he smiled at her as he took the pack, "The secret is being the fastest in the group"

"So that's why you're always running in the morning" she chuckled at the morbid joke

"I'll come back Elia" He placed his hands on her cheeks as he looked in to her eyes, "Besides the record for successful descends is five, only three more after this"

They shared a kiss before the gates of the village opened and the group passed beyond its threshold and in to the underworld.

"Did you see that star fall a few days ago" one of the men made idle chatter

"I was on night watch at the time" another answered, "It was all quiet and suddenly a streak across the sky, the thing landed somewhere near Old Solra"

"Old Solra" some of the men shivered at the name, "We're not going anywhere near there, right?"

"That place is crawling with beasts, this is your first descent we're going to the Clearing" Aldean told them

The Clearing was the name for a place where the fog was thinner and beasts not so common, it was a good hunting ground and they could scavenge some good tech although to get to it they would have to pass close to Old Solra.

"Maybe we should go to Old Solra, whatever fell could be worth a lot maybe enough for a ticket to Aeoror"

"If we go to Old Solra then you'll all die and I'll have to tell your families how stupid you were" Aldean shook his head as the men continued to talk and joke as they went further and further down

After half a day the slope of the mountain flattened out and they reached the ground. Thick white fog surrounded them on all sides and a still silence hung around them. They all pulled out their weapons, many veteran mist walkers were equipped with ancient tech that could damage the thick hides of beasts, known as beast forged weapons, but it was rare to find them so most were equipped with lesser weapons that could be scavenged or made from the scrap that was found, the men of this expedition were equipped with simple ballistic rifles that were enough to take down the prey they were hunting but Aldean was equipped differently. He was the most experienced mist walker in the village and most of the surrounding villages so he was entrusted with the two village treasures, Fen's wrath and Mist cutter, one was plasma weapon that could shoot through the toughest hide and the other was a sword that had slain many great beasts. Aldean pulled out Mist cutter and the blade glowed as it hummed to life, the light seeming to part the fog as the group moved carefully through it.

Time had passed, about a day, they had trapped a few small animals already but the expedition was to last for a few weeks and they hadn't reached the Clearing yet. Aldean and his group climbed up a tree and set up camp, most monsters weren't good at climbing so the only safe places were the mountains and trees, they pulled up their packs and settled in for the night.

"So you ever been to Old Solra?" a man asked Aldean as they started eating their meal, mostly dried meat and a few vegetables

"On my second descent"

"What's it like?"

Old Solra was the last surface city, it had managed to hold off the fog and keep the beasts at bay, it was a great city that thousands of people flocked to but a few hundred years ago its defences had failed and all the people who lived there were consumed by the fog. It was now a cursed place where the worst of beasts roamed and the fog was the thickest but it was one of the few places that beast forged weapons could be found in any abundance. Aldean looked at Fen's wrath and Mist cutter, they were weapons that had been found in Old Solra, he remembered his first descent, it had gone horribly wrong but he managed to take down one of the beasts and saved most of the men, that's what earned him his name and why they headed to Old Solra on his second descent, although they only looked around just outside the city limits were it was safest.

"Never been in the city, way too dangerous, but quite a few good pieces of tech if you have a good eye" Aldean looked around at the men as they strapped them selves to the trees they sat in, "I'll take first watch so get some rest"

The fog was so thick that sunlight barely reached the surface so it was hard to tell the time of day but the fog was thin right now so he could tell that the sun was going down and it would soon be night. The fog swirled around the tree trunk, almost like it wanted to climb up, but he had pretty good visual all around although he was looking out for prey more than he was any beasts. A few uneventful hours later his time to rest came.

The men dropped from the trees and started to trek towards the Clearing. It took another day and a half to reach the Clearing but when they got there the men were amazed.

"WOAH!" the fog was so thin that you could see almost 7 feet ahead of you, it was probably the thinnest fog that could be found on the planet

"Ok clam down men" Aldean reined in the excited me, "Keep together and keep your weapons ready, just 'cus monsters rarely appear here doesn't mean they don't"

They moved as one, just as they had been drilled in the village, completely silent to pick up on any noise the beasts happen to make. Time didn't seem to pass as nothing happened and they searched for tracks and any sign of prey, it was all silent when Aldean tore Fen's wrath from his hip and fired to his left, the cry of an animal in pain came soon after and then the thud of it's collapsing body.

"How?" the men were impressed as they went to check the kill

"Spend a few days in this hell and you gain a sixth sense" they stood over the corpse of an Aletram, a large beast almost as tall as a man with large horns that could rip through the mist walkers leather armour and strong hooves that could cave a man's skull in

"Well don't just stand there, butcher it before the smell attracts something else"

The men pulled out their knives and got to work carving the body up, careful not to leave even the tiniest scrap of meat, they tightly sealed the cuts in bags to keep it fresh and stop them smelling too much like dinner. It took about 20 minutes in all to reduce the Aletram down to bones and move on. A few of the men managed to bag some other prey; one manged a head shot on a Kettling, a small creature that ran around on two legs eating berries, another bagged an Onyxin a stout beast that had a tendency to charge and break mist walker's shins.

It had been hours since they left the trees and the group was preparing to climb back up and make camp, Aldean tied his pack to a rope and one of the men pulled it up as a few others moved about the branches, securing and tying things down, and a few other men prepared to climb. Suddenly one of the men screamed and a high pitch screech tore through the silence, a curved blade shot out of the fog and pinned a man to the ground, right through his chest. Aldean pulled out Mist cutter and blocked the blade as it headed for another man, an identical blade cut through the fog to his right and Aldean jumped back, dodging the tip my millimetres.

"Stay in the trees!" He ordered the men that had already climbed, "Everyone else drop any extra weight"

The beast that was assaulting them came in to full view, it was an Intarch; it was tall, probably just over 8 feet, and it walked on four thin legs at the back of it's body with two equally as thin arms that ended in the deadly blades that killed two men, it's head was an oblong shape with two eyes running down each side and a jaw that split open to reveal a circular hole filled with needle like teeth. Aldean rolled as he dodged another strike, he kept the beast's attention on him as he moved away from the group, he blocked a slash and pulled Fen's wrath from its holster, firing point blank at the Intarch's armoured chest and managing to shoot clean through the shoulder joint. The beast reared back in pain and Aldean use the opening to swing Mist cutter high and decapitate the insectoid monster.

The men still on the ground rushed over to him as the body and head fell, "That was terrifying"

"From what I heard Intarchs don't normally hunt around here" Aldean knelt down and picked up the head

"Yeah most live around Old So…" the man didn't finish his sentence as a foot-long needle lodged itself in his back

Everyone ducked as another needle sailed over their heads, "It's a needle tail" one of them identified

"We need to run" Aldean set off

"But th…."

"They'll be safe in the trees and they know it, leave your gear with them"

The group set off in a random direction and ran with all their might, ducking and weaving to dodge the needles that were flying around them, they could hear the screams of their comrades as they were struck in the back or other hidden beasts caught them. Aldean got a bad feeling and stopped just as a long coiling creature shot out of the fog and crossed his path, catching another man in it's mouth. There were beasts everywhere, too many for this region and way too dangerous, Aldean ran and didn't look back not until he couldn't hear screams anymore. He slowed down and took a seat on a rock, catching his breath, the last few possibly hours had been crazy and he had lost everyone else in his group.

"This has been a disaster, I hope the tree guys are alive" he hung his head as he tried to think about his next action

Snap, Aldean whipped Mist cutter out and pointed it at the source of the sound, "Woah, it's just us" three men walked out of the fog, "Have you seen anyone else?"

"No" Aldean sheathed the sword

He looked at the three surviving men, all thin and pale just like most people on the planet, all three of them had just turned twenty, "What's your name?" he asked the one who spoke first

"Oediel" he was the second son of one of the shepherds in the village

"You?" he pointed at the unusually short man next to Oediel

"Iridean" the only child of the man who made their leather armour

Aldean just looked at the third one, "Urude" looking eternally grim he was the eldest son of a merchant who called their village home

He knew all these men, and the ones who died, he wasn't even a decade older than them, he looked at their scared and confused faces and summoned all the strength he could, "Anyone got a map, we need to know where we are?"

"I have one" Iridean pulled a folded map of the area out of a breast pocket

They gathered around and studied it, "It's pretty peaceful here but the fog is quite thick, so maybe the silent gorge" Urude pointed at a region quite close to the Clearing

"Then if we move north, we'll hit the smoking forest and from there we can get our bearings at the shrouded rock" Aldean folded the map and handed it back, he took out a compass and they moved out.

It had been hours and they hadn't seen any forest, they were starting to think they would be lost in the fog forever, "Where is this forest?" Oediel was getting jittery

"We should be there soon"

"What if we didn't end up in silent gorge?"

"We'll be fine, we're going to get home" Aldean tried to calm him down

"Besides the silent gorge is the only place that could be this peaceful" Urude reasoned

"Not the only place" Iridean had stopped as was staring at something while the others were absorbed in their argument

The other moved over and saw what he did, "impossible" they said, "we should be dead by now"

In front of them, about 7 feet away, was a giant wall that reached to the sky, it was the city wall of Old Solra. The four men looked up at the imposing walls in awe, it was always said that so many beasts coated the walls of Old Solra that the stone work couldn't be seen but right now the walls were completely bare and the only living thing for miles were the four mist walkers.

"What is going on?" Aldean questioned as he looked at the walls in disbelief, "We were ten times further from the walls when I came here and the beasts would not give us a second of peace"

"Maybe this is where all the beasts in the clearing came from" Iridean suggested

"Meaning there are none in Old Solra" Urude pointed out, "This could be a once in a life time opportunity"

"You don't want us to go in to the city" Oediel looked at him like he was mad, "Why would the beasts leave unless there was something worse inside"

"Or it could be a migration of some kind" Iridean theorised, "Maybe there is no more food in Old Solra so they left"

"Or maybe it's Fen and we're gonna be the first to get eaten"

"That's just a story, you're too superstitious" Urude turned to Aldean who had just been staring at the walls in disbelief this whole time, "You're the leader, what will we do"

He deliberated for only a few seconds, "We're going in, we need to find out what happened here"

"When we die and go join with the gods I'm gonna complain the whole time" Oediel grumbled as they started to follow the walls, looking for a gate

They walked along the great walls of Old Solra for about an hour, and didn't see a single living thing, before they found the great gate to the city. It was massive, standing taller than 10 men, with thick steel doors that showed reliefs of the beasts pouring out of the underworld and people fleeing to the city, on either side of the gate stood two massive statues of sentinel warriors but that was when Old Solra still had people living in it, now the doors lay rusted and ripped from their hinges in the middle of the road in to the city and the warriors stood broken and shattered.

"Nothing here either" Aldean noted as they walked over the steel doors in to the city

Old Solra was a magnificent city, in it's prime, the buildings that were once so tall they rivalled the mountains that man calls home now lay as broken and rusted skeletons, the streets that were said to be paved with silver were now just dirt and weeds, everywhere they looked all they found was the shattered legacy of man and all they had lost.

"How many people have been in this city since the disaster?" Urude wondered as he looked around at the crumbled ruins

"And lived? Maybe less than a handful" Aldean answered

"Let's see what's inside" Iridean moved towards the half-collapsed doorway of a small building, it wasn't easy to see what it could have been through the decay and centuries of being abused by the beasts

"Get eaten if you want" Oediel ignored him and kept walking down the road

"Come on" Aldean grabbed his collar and dragged him over to the house

The four of them crawled through a small opening, the place was obviously once a home, furniture was broken and thrown about the place and many scattered items covered the floor, Oediel knelt down and picked one up, a stuffed Aletram toy that was ripped to near shreds. In the corner of the room a group of four skeletons, one of them obviously a child, lay in a huddled group, their bones covered in claw and teeth marks.

Iridean looked down at them, "We should…." Aldean stopped him

"This city is full of bodies like this we don't have time"

They left the small home and walked back in to the streets, "that wasn't as fun as I thought it would be"

Urude turned to Iridean, "It's been hundreds of years there's nothing here but death and ruin"

The group made their way deeper in to the city and as they got closer to the towering central complex that lay at city's heart they found that the streets were filled with more and more dead. Aldean knelt in front of one that lay slumped against a wall, still in its grip a rifle, it was easy to take, the bones crumbling under the slightest touch.

"Beast forged" Aldean inspected and then fired the weapon, throwing a bolt of plasma in to a wall and melting right thorough it, "Here"

He threw the weapon to Urude and searched for more, Aldean had been the only one who had more than a combat knife since the incident in the Clearing. Urude tested the weight of the weapon and put it to his shoulder to check the ancient sight. It didn't take much looking to find the other two weapons, the ground was as littered with weapons as it was bones.

"We should try and take back as many as we can" Iridean suggested as he picked up a shield, activating it and producing a wall of blue energy

"Yeah we'll be heroes, the village will become the richest place on the planet" Urude swung around a sword he had found, "there is no way it'll stay this quiet forever"

"Just try not to over encumber yourselves after that we're leaving and heading back to the clearing to help the others" Aldean ordered as Oediel found a mostly intact bag and they started collecting weapons

They went through the city collecting weapons and seeing wonders that they had thought were legends, metal beasts that could stop a Molda's charge and flying machines that could reach the tallest peaks with ease, the technology of Old Solra was far beyond anything the people currently possessed.

After hours of being the only living things they saw, the group drew closer to the centre of the city and as they did, they found themselves in a square that was so filled with the remains of the dead that the ground was a sheet of bleached white bone. The bones snapped and crunched underfoot as the number of dead became greater and greater until it suddenly stopped at the foot of some steps, they were beautiful white marble that made it difficult to see where the dead stopped and the steps began and seemed barely touched by the passage of time with none of the scratch marks of the other building of Old Solra, the four ascended and soon came to the base of a great statue that stood as tall as 20 men. It depicted a crowned man with an axe battling a ferocious beast but the head of the beast was gone, smashed to pieces and laying around the base. The statue depicted Aeoran, the first king of Old Solra and the first mist walker.

The legendary king Aeoran was the first mist walker, legend has it that he cut the wings off all the beasts that could fly and the claws off all the beasts that could climb so that man could live in peace. He ruled Old Solra and fought off hordes of beasts single handily and when his life drew near to its end he took his great axe, Beast splitter, and walked in to the mist fated to return at the end of the world and battle the great beast Fen for the very survival of all men but legends say that he still wanders the mist searching for the slumbering Fen, to slay the beast before it can wake.

"This is the great temple of Aeoran" Urude looked up at the statue in wonder along with the other three men

"Let's go inside" Oediel suggested as he walked past the statue toward the temple itself

The temple was a short building, overlooked by all the surrounding buildings, only two or three storeys tall but much like the statue and the steps it seemed untouched by the passage of time, even the mist had cleared, it looked to be carved out of one massive block of solid marble with great arch ways that contained detailed stain glass of Aeoran's deeds, the only part of the temple that saw any damage were the massive steel doors which had been blown off their hinges and now lay inside the temple.

They crossed the threshold and wandered in to the temple, light came in through the giant windows casting colourful shadows across the floor and the skeletal bodies of hundreds of people but unlike all the remains found outside the temple these bones showed no signs of being touched by beasts, the bones were completely clean with not even a scratch or claw mark on them, these people had not been killed and eaten by the beasts outside, no they had starved to death probably pray for a saviour who never came.

The four looked around the temple but voted against touching or taking anything as to respect such sacred ground but as they wandered close to the back of the temple Aldean noticed something, the completely smooth and flawless floor had a deep gorge cut in to it, like something had smashed in to it.

"Hey guys over here" He called the others over as he followed the gorge

The four gathered at the very back of the temple, at the foot of a shrine dedicated to Aeoran, just a hairs width from touching and disturbing the holy monument was what looked like a metal coffin with a glass lid and inscribed on it was "II".

"What is that?" Urude asked as they looked at the strange box in wonder

Iridean looked back at the doors of the temple and did a few calculations in his head, "It came through the doors" he kneeled down to look at the right angle, "it was what destroyed Fen's head"

"It was what fell from the sky a few days ago" Aldean realised

"What is it?" Oediel asked

"No clue but it might be the reason why there are no beasts here anymore" their leader stepped forward and placed a hand on the mysterious device

His hand brushed against a button and the lid unlocked with a hiss as water flooded out of it and puddled in the gorge it had cut in the floor. Aldean opened the lid and found a baby inside, sleeping as if it were in its mother arms.

"By the gods" the three other men grabbed the charms they kept on them and started praying to the gods but Aldean couldn't look away from the child

It was beautiful, almost unreally so, without thinking he picked the child up and took it in to his arms. His wife had been pestering him for a child recently, ever since he started descending really, she would probably be overjoyed.

"What are we going to do with it" Oediel asked as he held his charm over his heart

"Him" Aldean corrected, he could clearly see the child was a boy, "We'll take him back, Elia always wanted children"

"It came from the sky, it's….it's…." Iridean stumbled over his words

"He's a gift from the gods" Aldean smiled at the sleeping child, "He's Aeoran returned"

They soon left the temple and the city with Aldean carrying the sleeping child but as soon as they left the city, he opened his eyes and stared off into the fog. The entire way back to the clearing they found no beasts and eventually they found the remaining me still stuck in the tree they left them in. it was decided to end this expedition and mount another one in a few weeks, they had a better haul than they could have ever hoped for.

Elia tended a small field with many of the other villages, praying as she went for the crops to not fail but as she went about her work she heard someone announce that the expedition had returned. An expedition only returned early for one reason and that is survivors fleeing a devastating beast attack, the woman panicked as she rushed to the gates and prayed that Aldean was among the survivors. She arrived at the gate and found the returning party in a more joyous mood than would be normal, she soon spotted Aldean and rushed over to him and found him holding a small bundle in his arms.

"What is that?" She asked

"Our son"


	2. Pirate lords

2\. Pirate lords

From the moment of his creation he was one with water; it moulded his flesh and very soul, it was his blood and all he knew. As most of his brothers were tossed through the warp, fearing for their very souls, he slept peacefully as the tides of the immatrium rocked him. Some of his brothers were forged in fire or in the darkness or the mist but he was forged in infinite cold deep of sea, both physical and ephemeral, it stained and cleansed his heart in equal measure. So from the deep he was born so to the deep he will return.

The world of Krake was brutal and savage, the surface was over 90% water and the lands were scattered islands where a man could eke out a simple life, so many people made their lives out on the sea; as a merchant trading, a mercenary sailor protecting the merchants, a dredger reclaiming whatever the sea has taken, a platform worker extracting whatever resources were under the sea or as a pirate terrorising all of the above. The power of pirates varied from a couple of dozen men on a small escort ship to massive fleets of thousands of sailors manning battleships and cruisers capable of rendering an island a lifeless slab of glass. The most feared of all pirates were the pirate lords of Krake, men who had at times hundreds of ships and multiple fleets under their command and were capable of assaulting even the most heavily defended islands.

He sat atop the observation deck just above the bridge, feeling the salty wind of the sea blow through his long black hair, his golden eyes looked at the unending expanse of water seeing nothing but unwavering sun beating down on undisturbed sea. His skin was a dark brown colour, like everyone on this world, his chin was covered in stubble and a few jagged scars. He took the salty air in to his lungs, puffing out his chest, and expelled it just as another man ran up behind him.

"Report!"

"The destroyer _Fury_ has spotted the convoy, heading east at about 30 knots sir" the man stood stock still, clearly scared of his superior

"Tell the _Fury_ to meet up with the _Wrath_ and the _Flame_; head north, come back around and push the convoy south towards us" He stood up, tall and quite slim, an excited smile spread across his face, "even pirates have to work for a living, tell all the men to get battle ready"

The massive battleship cut through the waves surrounded by a dozen or so small escorts, followed by 5 slightly smaller cruisers and another battleship bringing up the rear of the line, this was the fleet under the personal command of Atris Nelson, one of the most feared pirate lords on the world of Krake. Atris had a reputation of being brutal and effective, leaving his enemies as drifting hulks or sunken wrecks, his crew were known to fear him just as much as anyone who stood in his path adding to his infamy.

Atris strolled in to the command deck as multiple men looking over maps or manning communication equipment stood stock still at attention, they all wore black short sleeve shirts with different ranks displayed over their left breast pocket, he had to keep organisation somehow. A young man, probably in his mid teens ran up to him, one of the low ranked runners that delivered messages all over the ship.

"We're closing in on the convoy fast my lord, there are no signs they have noticed us yet" he avoided looking the pirate lord in the eye as he waited to be dismissed

"Good" he gave the boy a tap on the shoulder to send him off and took his seat in the centre of the deck, "Kismet"

A thin man in his 30s came up behind the chair, he wore a black tunic with golden edging and clasped on his left shoulder with gold buttons styled like some terrifying creature of the deep, Atris and the other senior officers wore the same thing. He was Captain Navis Kismet, Atris' first mate and second in command and the only man under his command who could say what he liked to the pirate lord.

"The convoy is heading right for us, the escorts are doing their job" Navis looked out in to the horizon as if searching for their prey, "the _Fury_ first spotted it, you should reward Captain Kaledy, he's served well for a long time"

"Yes, I'll think of something, who's protecting the convoy?" Atris asked

"According to reports from Kaledy a ship matching the description of the _Last Bastion_ was spotted so it should be Amason"

"I hate that bastard, he sunk the _Warspite_ and her escorts, I liked that ship" An excited grin graced the pirates face, "I'll finally get to avenge it, I want Amason dead and I want his ship, tell Kaledy and the other destroyers that"

"I think that'll be a fine prize" Navis went to inform the communication officer of the new orders

Atris sat back in his chair as he looked along the ships deck at the men running around preparing for battle; dragging more ammunition on deck, doing last checks on the titanic 16" naval cannons, arming boarding parties and whatever else needed to be done.

"Sir, contact!" the man on the radar system caught his attention, "From the south, traveling 40 knots and speed seem to be increasing"

"Who is it?" He knew it was probably a rival pirate but depending on who it was would determine if he could just tell them to back off or if he would have to fight, "Hail the ships and tell them that convoy is our prey"

The communications officer repeated his message a few times before a reply came back, "is that Atris I hear?" A woman's voice came as a reply, "Have you replaced those ships yet?"

Atris motioned for the handset and spoke in to it, "Asla, so nice to hear from you" he chuckled after hearing the woman's voice, "Are you here for that dredger ship we spotted, you're a couple miles off course if you want directions, or are you finally here to join my crew"

"I'll join you on that floating scrap heap you call a ship when these seas dry up"

"Always the sharp tongue, that's what I always liked about you"

"Knowing you Atris I would have thought it was my superior ships and crew…. Or my tits"

"Your ass is much better but back to the matter at hand, that convoy is our prey back off"

"Can't do that, I wanna buy some new cannons and those aren't cheap"

"I'm sure you can find plenty of cannons at the bottom of the ocean, I'll point you in the right direction"

Kismet came up and whispered in to Atris' ear, "We can't afford to fight her here, it'll scare off the convoy"

The pirate turned to him, "I know, this will be so much easier if she wasn't so stubborn"

"Still there Atris? Or has your hunk o' junk sunk already?"

"Tell you what Asla, how about we tag team it, cut it even 50/50" Atris offered, "But I want that battleship don't sink it"

"Fine but I'll only give you the battleship if you beat me to it" communications cut off

Atris turned to one of the runners, "Get me my weapons and get as many boarding parties ready as you can"

Commodore Alst Amason was an aging man, closing in on his 50s, his greying beard and scarred face showing experience, his once muscular body was slowly being replaced with fat as he spends more time sitting around than killing pirates although he could still do the latter well enough. He sat on the deck of his battleship, the _Last Bastion_, as he watched the men moving around the cannons, six 16" cannons running the length of his ship that have ripped through the hulls of hundreds of his foes, it was one of the most powerful ships on the planet. Amason has been part of mercenary fleets since his late teens and in his long almost 30-year career he has boarded pirate ship and commanded ships as small as escorts all the way up to his current pride and joy.

"Have we lost those damn pirates yet?" the old sailor was irritated at the fact he had to divert his ships instead of engaging in order to protect the convoy that trailed just behind his ship

"They hit our radar sir we can't see them but the lookouts haven't spotted them" the radar officer reported, "the _Scarred Hide's_ radar is still functional, it isn't picking anything up but it isn't as powerful"

"Well that is good" Amason turned to his navigation officer, "How long until we reach our destination again?"

"Another 3 days sir" he sighed at that answer

"I just want to get this job done with, I heard Atris the Wolhark and Asla the Seeran were spotted in the area we're heading to a few days ago"

"While they are worthy prey and we might be able to eke out a win against Asla, we'll need more ships to face Atris" Alst's oldest friend and first mate, Captain Jast Elay, walked over to his side

Elay was only slightly younger than Amason, his body still in good shape and no wrinkle cut into his clean-shaven face or grey hair grew on his short black hair, the tragedy of age hadn't fully reared its head yet. The two joked around as they have done over the decades they had known each other

"Sir the _Scarred Hide_ reports contact!" the communications officer relayed the message as he heard it, his face going pale as he heard the last part

"What is it?" Amason demanded, practically shouting at the frozen officer, "Where are they? Who are they?"

"Two fleets heading straight for us from the south and from the south east, multiple signatures and at least three battleships sir"

"Tell all ships to increase speed maybe we can out run them"

"How fast?"

"As fast as they can go!"

A lookout practically jumped down from the observation deck and ran in to the bridge, "Sir the pirates are back, bearing down on us from the north and fast"

Amason bite his thumb as the thought for a second, "Ignore them, if we stop to engage the other fleets will block off any escape route, stay east, don't let us get cut off"

"Yes sir!" the bridge came alive as men ran about relaying messages and preparing for battle

Amason soon saw three small escort ship form a line and pull up parallel to his own formation. The commodore had arranged his ship as a shell around the vulnerable trade vessels he was protecting, with his battleship at the head, his 5 cruisers surrounding the line of freighters and his handful of escorts providing a screen to spot danger, although they seemed to be slacking off. He watched as the three pirate destroyers focused their fire on one of his and sunk it in a few minutes.

"Tell the _Baneblade_, the _Heart_ and the _Tide_ to pull off and engage the pirate escorts" Amason ordered a cruiser and two frigates to deal with the harassers

"Contact sir!" he was informed of more enemies

"Which is it?"

"From the south, according to lookouts ships matching the description of the _Soul Reever_ and the _Heart Ripper_ have been spotted"

"Atris" Elay bit his nail as he realised the situation they were in, "Those escorts are probably his as well"

"To the east!" the communications officer delivered more bad news

"More of Atris"

"No it's the _Seeran's Scream_, Asla sir"

"They've teamed up" Amason fell back in to his chair in shock, they were doomed, surrounded with two powerful pirate lords bearing down on them

The old sailor took a deep breath as he sat back up in his chair, "Give me the handset and relay this message to all ships in the fleet"

"Men! We're about to fight a battle we can't win but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fight it" He spoke to every man under his command, "if these pirate scum want to get at our pay day they're gonna have to go through us and I am not easy to get through, how about you?"

He heard the men on his ship roar in approval, "This money is ours and the only thing I'm gonna give those bastards is a ton of shells and a whole lotta salt water, WHO THE HELL IS WITH ME?"

He heard the men across all his ships roar, "TAKE UP ARMS MEN! We're gonna die kicking and screaming"

Atris pulled his fleet up to the convoys starboard side and started sailing parallel, seeing his escorts already sinking the smaller ships, the pirate lord walked out on to the walkway just in front of the bridge, looking down at the men and cannons ready for battle, "MEN!" He screamed, his powerful voice carrying across the deck, "Let's get paid!"

His crew roared and howled, "All ships fire on the closest cruiser, I want the battleship intact"

All his ships shot off their cannons in a beautiful symphony of destruction, he looked through binoculars as several shells landed in the water around the ships and then one or two of them hit the midship, one of them causing a small fire.

"Kismet you have command" Atris put the binoculars away and rushed down to the deck where a couple dozen men waited with small fast boats, ready to launch

The small boats zig zagged through the water as they approached the _Last Bastion_, the water around them came alive as machine guns mounted to the side of the ship fired on them, a few men being hit and falling out of their boats, but most of the boats reach the battleship relatively unscathed. The pirates fired lines up to the deck and started to climb as others fired up the side, providing suppressing fire. Atris jumped on to the deck and pulled out his favourite weapon, Wolhark's maw, the large chainsword whirred to life as the pirate cut through the mercenaries, he was soon forced to pull out his second favourite weapon, Call of the deep, an ancient bolter pistol that could rip through two men in one shot. As Atris sawed men in half and blew others heads from their shoulders he heard people screaming high pitched war cries, he looked to the bow of the ship and saw Asla and her raiders boarding the ship as well. The feared pirate lady carried two plasma pistols, the Seeran's screech and the Seeran's song, burning a hole in any man that got too close to her, the two groups of pirates fought their way to each other and started pushing the mercenaries off the deck.

"Asla good to see you" Atris walked over to her, dripping blood as he went

"Why do you use that barbaric thing?" Asla was short, almost a foot shorter than Altris but no less fearsome, she was a beautiful woman with the dark skin, black hair and golden eyes of everyone from Krake although she did have a scar running along her jaw on the right side of her face

Atris held up his gore covered chainsword and laughed, "It's loud and distinctive, all the men I kill know just who sent them to the deep"

The two stood on the deck and talked as fire filled the air, their men kneeling behind sandbags that had been set up as cover, "I can see why you wanted this ship" Asla batted her eyes at the taller pirate, undoing her top button, "I could really do with a ship as strong and powerful as this"

"That's not gonna work on me, for the cargo maybe but not for the ship"

"Can I have the cargo?"

"No" Atris burst out laughing, "come on we have mercs to kill"

The battle lasted hours but ended with all the mercenary ships sunk and the _Last Bastion_ under the control of Atris and Asla. The pirate lord walked the deck as he watched men throw dead bodies over board or sometimes live bodies that wouldn't cooperate, he had other men commandeering the trade ships they had come here for.

"Half of that is mine" Asla walked up behind him, watching their ships sail past each other as they protected their prize

"So you still won't join me?" Atris asked

"No I won't but you can join me"

Atris chuckled, "Come on, the two of us together would be an unstoppable force, even Evis the breaker wouldn't be able to stop us"

"That the speech you give all the girls" Asla gave him a pat on the shoulder, "I'm fine working my way up on my own although if you're that desperate we can celebrate our impromptu partnership in your quarters tonight"

"This isn't just about your ass it's also about your ships"

"Just what every girl wants to hear"

"Whatever just don't expect me to be this nice in the future" Atris walked past her towards several men who were dragging Amason and his officers on to the deck

"Let go of me" the old man looked beaten and dishevelled, "Just kill me already so I don't have to watch you defile my ship"

"Commodore Amason, I have wanted to meet you for some time" Atris smiled down at the defeated commander as he was shoved to his knees

"Atris the Wolhark" Amason spat at his feet, "Didn't expect you to look exactly like one"

"I heard you were funny" Atris whipped out his bolter and shot one of the officers kneeling behind Amason, "It was quite funny when you sunk the _Warspite_"

"That was your ship, easiest fight ever, really need to get yourself better crew"

"Well considering the situation, seems my crew is better than yours" he shot another officer

The two exchanged a few quips until Amason was the last one kneeling, "I can't wait for the day that someone finally cuts off that ugly head of yours, I'll show you around the deep"

"And I'll find a way to kill you again" Atris pressed the barrel to his head and pulled the trigger, reducing it to a pink mist of brain matter and skull fragments, he watched as men dragged the bodies across the deck and threw them overboard

"Lord Nelson" a young man wearing the black and gold tunic of his officers walked up to the pirate lord, he slightly taller than the pirate and clearly quite muscular

"Captain Kaledy" Atris greeted the man, "You did quite well pushing the convoy towards us"

"Thank you, sir, but I think you'll be a lot happier with me" Kaledy smiled at the praise

"What is it?"

"My men managed to capture the cruiser _Baneblade_ in relatively good condition, it's still seaworthy at least"

"Well done" he laughed as he pat the captain on his back, "You'll be rewarded for this, I'm taking this ship as my flag, I'm giving command of the _Soul Reever_ to Malson and you'll be given his old ship, the _Albion_"

"T-thank you sir" Kaledy gave the pirate lord a curt nod and went off to celebrate

"So what are you gonna do with the _Baneblade_?" Asla approached him

"Given the way he described it the ship is probably half sunk" Atris smirked, "but I could be convinced to part with it if we…. Say split the loot 55/45"

"You know women are attracted to generosity"

"And who says I'm trying to attract you?"

"Please when aren't you"

"All the time" Atris turned away from Asla and walked back down the deck, "Think on my offer, I'll be more open to negotiation after a drink"

The pirates anchored their ships in the middle of the ocean, it's still surface acting as a mirror and reflecting the light of Krake's two moons, wooden planks acting as bridges from one ship to another as the men of both pirate lords drank and sang songs together. Atris looked down from the bridge of the _Last Bastion_, the deck illuminated by multiple small fires with men gathered around them, the bridge was vacant except for Asla who sat in the captain's chair.

"A fleet that no one can withstand" he whispered looking out at the armada that surrounded him

"You've been unusually insistent that I join you" Asla walked up to stand next to him, "what is going on?"

Atris looked down at her before looking back out clear walls of the bridge, "I cannot conquer this world, not in my life time, it'll be my son or grandson who rules this world but unfortunately I need to put up with a woman for extended periods of time and you're the only one who doesn't bore me after a couple of days"

"Wow such a romantic but that does sound nice, to be remembered forever, to build something that will no fail"

"An unsinkable legacy, so will you join me?"

"Maybe but I'll have to be your equal, I'm no one's subordinate"

"Even the islands of Krake will sink under the power our armada"

"With such powers of persuasion, you should've been a trader"

The two grabbed each other's wrist, to seal the agreement, and as they did a ball of fire streaked across the sky and smashed in to one of the anchored freighters, reducing it to a flaming ball of twisted metal that slowly sank beneath the waves.

"That was your half" Atris quipped as he rushed down to the deck to survey the damage up close

"What's yours is mine, I'm not joining you until you swear to all the gods" Asla quickly followed him

The two got to the edge of the ship just in time to catch a glimpse of what sunk the ship, Asla turned to one of the many gathered men, "Take the _Fury_ and the _Wrath_ find a dredger ship and bring it back here as fast as you can"

The man looked to Atris who was still looking at the sinking ship, "Do what she says" he snapped and the man ran off

Men on other ships ran about as they manned their battle stations and prepared for another attack but nothing came, they waited hours but nothing else happened. The escorts came back just before sun rise with a dredger ship and its crew, by the time they were ready to start pulling things back from the depths the sun was already climbing in the sky.

"What the hell was that thing?" Asla wondered as the two pirate lords stood on the deck of the dredger ship, watching the massive crane lower its hooks in to the water

"I don't know, wasn't a weapon, I think it came from the sky"

"A strike from Zotris?"

The people of Krake believed in multiple gods but they mainly worshipped two warring gods; Zotris the god of the skies who struck at the seas to whip them up and sink ships and Ortris the god of the seas who retaliated with high waves that would consume whole islands. Zotis was mainly worshipped by islanders while Ortris was mainly worshipped by pirates and other sailors.

The pirate lords watched them pull up the lost cargo for hours until they were approached by the dredger captain, "Our divers found something down there that isn't cargo"

"The thing that fell" Atris realised, "Bring it up right now, I want it"

They didn't have to wait to long for it to be dredged up, the two stood by the crane with baited breath as it slowly brought the heavenly object to the surface, the surface tension of the water was soon broken and the mysterious object was pulled on to the deck. Atris and Asla rushed over to it, it looked like the pod of a fruit, metal with a glass lid and the symbol "XI" etched on it.

"Give me something to open it with" The pirate lord was handed a piece of metal to leverage the lid open with

Atris used all his might and the lid popped off with a rush of water, he moved closer to inspect what was inside and found was a sleeping child, a baby with dark skin and dark hair sleeping like he wasn't just thrown out of the sky. Asla picked the baby up, careful not to rouse him.

"A baby?" she looked at Atris confused by the turn of events

"A god" the whisper came from one of the handful of officers that joined them on the dredger boat

"Ovis" another whispered

Ovis was the patron god of all pirates, said to be the son of Ortris and Zotris' wife, Nadala, when the sky god found out he threw the young god from the heavens and in to the ocean where he is said to guide pirates to vulnerable ships to raid and embolden the hearts of the raiders, all in exchange for a small portion of the bounty.

"That is a good name" Atris took the baby from Asla and held him up, "I'll name him Ovis, Ovis Nelson, my son"

"Our son"


	3. Child of the mist

3\. Child of the mist

It was a regular day on Solaero, the mist hung thick around the mountains and the blanket of grey clouds floated just below their peaks. The village was peaceful with people of every kind going about their day; craftsmen making their wares, farmers trying to sell their excess crops, shepherds selling skins and meat and merchants from nearby villages haggling for a better prince from all of them. In the small fields that some families kept they tended to the soil and hoped for it to yield good crops for next harvest and shepherds watched over flocks of docile mountain creatures known as Capris. All was good in the village except for a small forgotten corner where some of the children gathered, the crowd of kids ranged from about 9 to 13 years old, they stood at the edge of a cliff watching something on the cliff face.

Aeoran had grown fast, it had been 4 years since he had been 'born' and he was already the size of a 10 year old boy. He also looked different, his skin wasn't an almost sickly pale like everyone on Solaero but had a healthy glow that suggested more sun than the planet actually saw and his hair wasn't a pitch black but a light brown colour, he always stood out in the village but right now it wasn't because of how he looked but what he was doing. Aeoran clung to the mountainside, the fast and vicious winds threatening to rip him off and throw him in to the mist below but the boy ignored it and kept climbing down towards the bird's nest that sat on a ledge far below. It wasn't really about the eggs in the nest but to show the others he could get them, Aeoran moved his hands without looking, his intuition telling him which grips to grab and where to place his feet, he had always been good at sensing danger his gut telling him when something bad was about to happen, the little voice in the back of his head guiding him on the right path. It didn't take long for the boy to reach the empty nest and he grabbed one of the eggs, placing it in his mouth, he climbed back up without issue but as he got back to the top his gut told him something was very wrong and when he finished his climb back up he saw what it was. A thin pale woman who couldn't be older than 30, without a word she moved through the crowd of children and grabbed Aeoran by his ear, dragging him off.

"Ow ow oww I'm sorry" the child apologised as he was dragged by his ear

"You were supposed to be clearing the field but when I go out there what do I find?" Elia let go of the boy's ear as she scolded him, "A field full of stones and you nowhere to be seen, your father is going to descend today and he needs to know you're here to help me"

"I'm sorry" the boy looked at his feet, avoiding his mother's glare

"You better be, now go clear the field like I told you"

"But that'll take hours and father will be leaving soon" Aeoran's head shot up as he protested

"Well work fast if you want to see him off" Elia gave his ear a good twist and sent him off

She returned home herself and finished her husbands pack for his descent; rations she made for him, several bottles of water, fire starters, warmer clothes and a few other things. After she had packed and triple checked everything Elia took a seat at the small table in the corner of their one room mudbrick house, she pulled out some tools and a small stone and got to work on the last thing for the bag. She was already half way done when she had to drag Aeoran back to the field, she concentrated intensely as she inched a small chisel along the stone, carving intricate patterns in to the stone. Her nimble and practised fingers moved cautiously, careful not to slip and waste days of work, she finally chipped the last of the stone away and admired her work. The surface of the stone was covered in intricate swirls that almost gave the impression of a face although there was incorporeal aspect to it, like she was just seeing what she wanted and not what was truly carved there. Elia drilled a small hole in the top of the stone and tied it to the bag, adding it to several other charms that hung from it.

The bag had been Aldean's fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers, some people joked that the bag was older than Solaero itself but it was still strong and it could still do its job. She ran her fingers through the myriad of charms, all carved by their wives as had been tradition for thousands of years ever since the veil descended and humanity was forced in to this life. Elia sighed as she lifted the heavy pack and carried it outside to wait for her husband to return from the peak.

Aldean soon returned from his prayers at the peak of the mountain followed by about 20 other men, as always as soon as they entered the village the group scattered. Aldean headed straight for his wife, instantly noticing his son was missing.

"Where's Aeoran?" he asked looking around the crowd

"He didn't do his chores earlier"

"This is my record-breaking descent, he should be here"

"Well he'll welcome you back" Elia placed the pack on his back, "if he finishes all his chores"

"Make sure he does" he pulled her in to an embrace

"I'm worried" she admitted as she wrapped her arms tight around him

"I'll be fine"

"No about Aeoran, it's getting harder to keep him a secret"

"You know why we have to keep him a secret"

They, along with all the adults in the village, had decided to keep the circumstances of Aeoran's 'birth' a secret knowing that if a larger village or one of the few cities found out then they would kill them all to get at him. They had done well so far, Aeoran wasn't an uncommon name and most outside merchants ignored him like they did all the kids, although a few regular visitors to the village noticed how fast he grew and how different he looked. They had also decided to not tell Aeoran what his destiny was opting to let fate take shape on its own.

"I know but he should at least know how special he is"

"He'll fulfil his destiny whether we tell him or not but if you're so worried about it we'll tell him when I get back"

"Ok, just come back ok" the two broke their hug and shared a kiss

"I always do" Aldean flashed his wife a carefree grin

"At least make sure the bag gets back, Aeoran could use it as a memento"

Aldean laughed at his wife's joke before he headed off through the village gates and in to the mist.

Aeoran stood in the middle of a large plateau, the earth exposed and filled with stones and weeds. He swung a rake in to the earth and pulled it along, pulling up big stones and loose weeds, the work wasn't hard for him, no work was, but he was frustrated at missing his father's departure. His gut told him something bad was going to happen and he wanted to warn him but his mother wouldn't have it and he was stuck here, clearing the field his family tended.

Aeoran had always been different, he knew that better than anyone in the village, he is stronger than most men in the village and he has never been sick. The few times he genuinely slept, and not just closed his eyes and waited for his parents to fall asleep so he could climb the mountain all night, he dreamed of evil voices and a cold turbulent sea. The dreams always gave him a foreboding sense of doom but as the dream world would grow colder and colder and the whispers would make his head split a golden light would throw it all back and warm his frozen heart. He could always almost see a figure standing in the blinding light but he was always so far away, his voice not quite cutting through the veil. He knew his fate wasn't in this village or even this planet, it was somewhere beyond that and much grander than he could imagine, he felt it in his gut.

Aeoran shook thoughts of the whispering voices and golden light from his head and got back to clearing the field, if his mother caught him slacking he wouldn't like it. He turned his head back to the earth and then turned to thoughts of his father, hoping and praying he would return alright.

Seridiel was a novice mist walker, he looked like everyone else in the village and on the world, lanky with pale skin and pitch black hair. He moved through the fog in formation, laser rifles pointed in all directions with over lapping fields of vision and firing arcs, all the mist walkers from their village carried beast forged weapons ever since Aldean had returned from Old Solra, they had sold a few but most were kept for expeditions. The advanced weapons had allowed them to stay in the mist longer and catch more which brought more money in to the village and had helped it grow immensely in the past few years, they'll need to give it an actual name soon instead of third village on the Mostael peak as it was known to the other villages that shared the peak.

The group had been in the mist for a little over a month and were exploring a part of the surface that few ventured in to or near, it was known as the Forgotten veil. The place was strange, even for a place on this planet, it was like a scar on the world. The mountains rose high but no one lived on them, the ground in the valley was flat and open but no creatures made their home there along with any kind of vegetation, the fog was thick but no beasts hunted there and it was devoid of any danger but mist walkers avoided it. All these reasons were why no one went near the place, such an easy hunting ground was too suspicious, and all the groups that went near the place had vanished but Aldean insisted on checking it out as part of his record breaking expedition, so there they were creeping through the silent mist of the Forgotten veil.

They moved as a large group for about an hour before they decided to split off in to smaller groups and look around. Seridiel and four other guys split off and headed south towards the centre of the Forgotten veil. There was nothing there, the ground had no grass and not a single animal was seen.

"There is nothing here" Tordean, an eager young first time mist walker, complained

"Why do you think we're heading to the centre" Urude, the veteran leading the group, told them

"I hope there isn't anything, I wanna leave as soon as" Solran, another novice, looked around frantically for any sign of danger

"Come on this is an adventure, image what everyone is going to say when we get back" the optimistic veteran Talrude smiled as he practically skipped along

"If we get back" Seridiel joked

The group kept moving, keeping their guard up, despite there being nothing but bare rock and thick fog. There was nothing to be seen. Not a single thing but there was something. Seridiel felt a cold hand on his shoulder, he jumped and pointed his rifle where the mysterious being should be but all he found was mist.

"You ok?" Urude asked, concerned at his sudden jump as the others looked for what he felt

"I'm fine" he shook the jitters out of his mind and put it down to his mind playing tricks

They kept moving but despite knowing it was in his head Seridiel couldn't get the thought of that hand out of his head. He felt something behind him as they moved through the mist but every time he looked back there was nothing.

_So weak_, he heard a whisper in his ear

Seridiel turned again and looked for the owner of the voice, "Who said that?" he screamed in to the mist but found nothing again

"Are you ok?" Talrude asked, the entire group looking concerned about Seridiel's behaviour

"I'm fine" he took a deep breath and pushed his panicked thoughts down, "there must be something in this wasteland"

As they moved deeper the whisper in his ear would come back, it would mock him and promise him things, he forced his mind to ignore it. It's not real he told himself over and over but it wouldn't leave. He could feel the voices cold hands around him, gripping tighter and tighter until he was going crazy.

_You're not crazy_, it whispered, _I can help you show them the truth, do you want that?_

Seridiel's jaw tightened as he heard the offer. He looked at his comrades, strolling along with out a care, they didn't know the torment he was suffering, they would think he was crazy if he told them. He's not crazy.

_No you're not let's show them_

Why him? Why does he have to suffer? Why won't the voice bother them? Because they were all fools who couldn't see the truth, he was special and needed to show them. All of them needed to see the truth, all the mist walkers, all the village, all the mountain, all the planet. They all needed to see and he would show them. He would show them.

"There's nothing here" Aldean complained as he walked along with four other mist walkers

"Quite strange" Iridean looked unsettled by the complete emptiness of the Forgotten veil, "Not even bones"

"Well nothing comes here to make bones" Oediel was on high alert like always

"Then why are you so on guard?" Iridean asked

"Because….." Oediel was cut short by a monstrous screech

The mist itself seemed to flee from the sound as screams and gunshots could be heard and then silence. They all looked at each other, silently discussing weather to run or try and help their men out. The decision was made for them as a claw ripped through the mist and dragged a man in to the veil, his screams were heard for a few seconds before they were silenced.

Aldean drew Fen's wrath and shot in the direction the man had been dragged but it only hit mist. The remaining men formed a circle as they watched for any movement. Aldean held out Mist cutter as they silently waited for the moment to strike. The beast found it first and its claw materialised out of the mist, dragging another poor soul in to it.

"I want to go back to when nothing lived here" Iridean joked, clearly afraid

"For the first time I agree with you" Oediel's finger twitched over the trigger of his lasgun as jumped at even the slightest movement

Aldean was afraid as well, his instincts and intuition normally told him where a beast would attack but not this time, it was like he was blind for the first time and it was terrifying. The veteran closed his eyes and took a breath, ignoring his sight and focusing on the feeling of the mist swirling around him and quiet sounds that surrounded them, he built a mental picture. Then he saw it, the claw reaching out of the mist.

"Iridean duck!" he ordered as he spun and slashed at the claw

The beast roared and another claw fell from above them, the group scattered as they shot at where the beast should be. It screamed more as the mist around it dissipated and they could see its true form. It was no beast but a monster, it stood 12 feet tall with bulging muscles that threatened to rip its taut blood red skin, it's massive hands and feet ended with bloody claws that were as long as Mist cutter. The monsters long wolf like face roared as it charged Aldean.

"BY THE GODS IT'S FEN!" Oediel pretty much screamed, "gods help us"

They kept firing at the monster but that only seemed to make it angry. It wasn't long until the rest of their expedition came, drawn to them by the noise, and joined the fight but nothing was working. They did their best to avoid the razor-sharp claws but they were being whittled down and their guns didn't have infinite ammo.

Aldean holstered Fen's wrath and charged the monster with Mist cutter, "YOUR HEAD IS MINE!"

Aldean swung but his blade was intercepted by the monster's claws, it's other claw swung for his head but he ducked and rolled in to the monster's guard, scoring a slash across it's leg. The monster roared and lashed out, managing to smack Aldean away with some force, Aldean tumbled along the ground but kept his grip on his sword. He charged again as the others fended it off and scored another hit. The two exchanged blows for a few minutes before the faster monster dug it's claws in to Aldean's leg and ripped out a chunk of his thigh, the mist walker winched as he fell to his knee, the other claw falling to end his life. Aldean let his leg buckle and he rolled to the side, cutting off the monster's hand in the process, as the monster reeled back Aldean used the last of his strength and launched himself at it. With a roar to equal the monster's Aldean swung Mist cutter and beheaded it, it's hulking form shaking the ground as it fell.

The expedition returned to the village after the incident with only half of the men they left with. Aldean returned a hero with an epic story of his record-breaking expedition, unfortunately it would be his last expedition, the wound to his leg meant he would never walk without the support of a crutch again but still he was a hero to the village and even the surrounding villages.

Aeoran watched as the people of his village paraded his father around on their shoulders, hailing him a hero, his intuition had told him something bad would happen to his father but nothing did. He questioned his instinct for the first time but he knew it wasn't wrong. So, what was so terrible that it gave him such a bad feeling.


	4. The seas of Krake

4\. The seas of Krake

The seas of Krake were quite rough, thanks to the planets two moons the weather was very unpredictable, one moment the sea could be relatively calm and then next the waves were destroying whole islands, but the Krakens were used to it. The sea currently raged with waves that arched high over the mighty ships that sailed through it, the few men on the deck held on to whatever they could grab as both rain and sea beat down on the deck and them.

Atris sat in the captain's chair as he looked out of the bridge, although the rain and waves had obscured the windows too much to see anything. This wasn't the worst storm he had ever seen, nowhere near, it wouldn't break the top 10 of any experienced sailor, and he didn't expect to lose any ships to it either although a few sailors had been washed off the deck.

There wasn't much a fleet was able to do during a storm, except bear it and sail on, Atris looked around the bridge of the ship formally known as the _Last bastion_ now renamed the _Krake's wrath_, his officers moved about as they coordinated the fleet and tried to keep them on course in the storm.

"How are they doing?" the pirate turned to his right hand, Kismet

"No one will sink but we need to reach port soon" The experienced sailor stroked a recently acquired beard, "the _Wanting_ and the _Integrity_ have been forced to tow the _Baneblade_ and the engines of this ship are close to exploding, the men down there are wizards"

"Considering it all, it is probably Ovis' work"

"That boy has grown fast"

It had only been 4 years since Atris and Asla had joined forces but Ovis was already the size of a 10 year old and had been put to work in the engines. It was tradition on Krake, most sailors started working on ships when they were young and would eventually work their way up from the bowels of the ship. Ovis took to work in the engines quickly, he seemed to instinctively know how to work and fix them and the work never seemed to tire him out. It became more obvious by the day that Ovis was no normal human and would be destined for great things.

The storm eventually passed and Atris' fleet was finally able to sail though calm seas, the crew got to work assessing any damage they took during the storm and trying to figure out how far off course they had been blown. In the underbelly of the ship a grease covered Ovis checked over the struggling engines of the _Krake's wrath_, the fleet had been at sea for months raiding and pillaging and the battleship had received a direct hit to the engine, it had killed half the men that worked down there and left a giant hole they had only just managed to seal. The engine room was half flooded and the engines themselves were one good hit away from exploding but thanks to Ovis and the other men's works they were chugging along.

There wasn't much that differentiated Ovis from anyone else on Krake, he had the same dark skin and black hair but where most everyone on the planet had deep golden eyes his were silver, it was very small and most people didn't mention it but that was only the first thing that separated him from everyone else.

"How's everything?" A muscular man wearing a sleeveless black shirt that didn't start as black approached the boy, he was old and bald with his only hair being his greying beard, though the grease worked to hide that

"Considering, pretty good, the storm didn't cause too much damage but we're leaking fuel and just about everything else that we can leak" he turned to Aest, the man who had run the engines of the ship since he was a babe and had been working with engines since before he was 'born' or even his father for that matter

Aest laughed, "Well as long as the ship is moving then we're doing our job" he pat Ovis on the back, wiping more grease and oil on the boy's grease and oil covered shirt, "shame you won't be taking over the engines, I could retire happy knowing you were in charge here"

"Maybe I will"

Aest laughed even louder, "You're not meant to be down here, your dad just wants you to know every part of this ship, it's the only way you can truly command a ship, if you've had hold it together with your bare hands and with the shape this ship is in, we might have to resort to holding it together with our bare hands" Aest had been like a second father to Ovis and the old man had taught him everything he knew about fixing and maintaining every part of the ship, "Get up to the bridge and tell your dad what the situation is and check if the guns are still working while you're up there, I can guarantee Earst is slacking"

"Sure" Ovis quickly climbed out of the engine and headed up to the deck

Everyone on the ship knew who he was and moved aside as he made his way through the narrow corridors of the ship, he made it to the bridge in a few minutes, his dirty appearance out of place amongst the neat and clean appearance of the officers that occupied the bridge.

"Ovis!" his father smiled as he saw him enter and stood from his chair, "How are the engines?"

"Leaking but they will hold out" Ovis reported, "how long until we reach port?"

Atris looked at his navigation officer who sent a junior officer over to report, "We were blown quite far off course, at our current speed we'll arrive in 4 days" the young man, no older than 19, reported before heading back to the map

"Will they hold out that long?" Atris asked

"No but I'll make it work" Ovis sighed

Ovis made his way back to the engines to tell Aest how long they'll have to keep the engines running for.

It was hard work but four days of constant repairs that barely kept the engine going had got them in sight of the port where they would finally get to properly fix all the damage done to the ship, from what Ovis and the rest of the engineering crew had seen of the damage it would take months to make the ship seaworthy again but their raiding had been very lucrative so the crew had earned a few months on dry land.

Islands and therefore ports were scarce on Krake and pirates, mercenaries and any other sailors would pay a lot to be able to dock at a port but the pirate lords were different, most islands would happily let them dock without a fee to avoid the wrath of their fleets but the most powerful of the pirates didn't just control fleets but also islands as well. They held absolute power on these islands, much like their fleets, they were used to grow food for their crews, recruit new men, dock and repair their ships and store the treasure they plundered.

Ever since his union with Asla, the two have been able to take control of a small cluster of three islands. They were quite far from any other islands and the waters were calm most of the year, it also didn't appear on many maps so no one would come and bother them.

The northern most island had been dedicated to docking and repairing the hundreds of ships the two controlled while the central island is where most of the people lived and farmed and the southern island was rich in ores so it was covered in mines and homes for the miners, although it was an active volcano and parts were dangerous. All the islands were shaped like mountains, very hilly with little flat ground, and covered in tropical greenery and fertile land. Near the peak of the central island overlooking the entire cluster Atris had a palace built for himself, circling the entire mountain and sitting atop it like a crown, and at the very peak was where he kept his vast riches, out of reach of anyone.

"Welcome back my lord" A short and scrawny looking man greeted Atris as he disembarked, he was Estras, the man that had been left in charge when him and Asla were out at sea, "I hope your voyage was fruitful"

Atris towered over the man, not just physically but in presence as well, Estras seemed to be bowing slightly as he walked behind the pirate lord, "I want my ship seaworthy as soon as possible, see to it" Atris barely looked at the little man as he made his way to a boat to the central island, "is Asla here? We need to discuss things"

"Yes she arrived a few weeks ahead of you, she is waiting at your palace"

Ovis, his father and many of his officers climbed in to a fast boat and made for the central island. They made it to the island and the palace in quick order and the officers dispersed to their various quarters, the palace hadn't been built to just house Atris and his family but also his officers and their families and allow them to quickly convene and discuss their next targets and strategy.

Ovis followed his father through the long corridors of his palace, the size of them becoming disorientating when compared to the cramped corridors of the ship he had spent the last few months on, the hall was decorated with rare pieces of art and artefacts all taken from various rivals or collectors his father and mother had defeated. The palace was basically one long corridor that looped around the mountain with one wall being covered in window panes that gave Ovis a good view of the houses and fields bellow them, the corridor was broken up by the occasional door that cut in to the mountain and led to various complexes that weaved through the rock.

"DADDY!" a squeal cut through the silence and a small child, no older than 3, ran towards them

"Sotris!" Atris kneeled down and picked the child up, "Have you missed me?"

"Yeah!" the toddler giggled as the pirate lord tickled him, looking completely opposed to the fearsome reputation he cultivated

"Now do you want to take me to mummy, I need to talk to her" he put the child down and let himself be led though his home

"She's in there" Sotris pointed to the door that lead to Asla's study

"Thank you" Atris picked up his small son and handed him to Ovis, "Go and play with your brother"

Ovis took his little brother as his father went to talk with his mother, he carried his brother out in to the main corridor, it had been quite some time since he had seen him and he'd noticed he had grown quite a bit. Ovis thought about how close in age they were, Sotris was only a year younger, but no one would be able to tell. Ovis remembered first seeing him when he was just a little new born and now his brother seemed to be growing as fast as the primarch was.

Ovis remembered everything from the moment he opened his eyes for the first time, it was his mother's face looking down at him, he remembered the lullabies she would sing him and his father showing him the endless ocean for the first time. Those were the clearest memories the young primarch had but he remembered things from before he opened his eyes, maybe before he had eyes, they were fuzzy and more like dreams he has already half forgotten but he never completely forgot his dreams. It always started with calm and a golden light passing him and then he is thrown in to chaos, the overwhelming power of the universe surrounds him and he's sent tumbling through an ever-stormy sea, he sees others suffering as he is and tries to reach out but the currents fling them far away. He is tossed around for an eternity or maybe just for a second and then he is caught, the sea still rages on around him but he is caught on a black rock that keeps the raging sea at bay, a will that stands opposed to the sea even as the swirling energies of eternity try to break it. Malicious presences surrounded him and the will, predators of unmatched power poised to rip them apart and feast, beings that cannot be bested even by the unbreakable tenacity of the will but still the will does not falter in the face of it's own destruction as the predators chipped away at what the untamed sea couldn't.

"I am the will and I will not be broken" those were the only words the will said before a dark shroud fell upon the primarch and next he knew he was in his mother's arms

Sotris squirmed in his arms and brought Ovis out of his day dream, the small boy covered himself in the oil that covered Ovis' stained shirt, managing to slip out of his brother's grip and run off down the corridor, tracking filth along the carpet as he went.

"Get back here" Ovis took off after the giggling toddler, purposeful keeping his distance as he chased his brother through the corridors, the memories of untameable seas and all-powerful predators falling to the back of his mind

Atris walked in to his partner's study without knocking, the room was reminiscent of a ships bridge with a large table that contained many maps taking up the centre of the room, the walls were covered with scraps of steel taken from ships she had sunk and a large chandelier that was clearly made from parts of wreaked ships hung from the ceiling to provide the room with light, Atris' own study wasn't too different.

"Don't you knock" the pirate lady sat behind a large wooden desk that dominated one side of the room, cleaning her plasma pistols

Atris looked at the necklace she wore and at a similar one he also wore, the two were technically married although on Krake marriage for sailors had little to do with love, it was used to produce an heir and gain the power and resources of another and monogamy was far from enforced. Despite the laxed view on marriage it was still a sacred covenant between two people and the gods and some traditions needed to be observed, such as one's spouse making a necklace that was to be worn for the rest of their lives. Atris' was many wooden fish hooks, carved by Asla herself, centred around the skull of a small fish, the only problem was that Atris hated fishing with a passion and she knew that. Asla's own necklace had been made with a similar sentiment, Atris had threaded the smooth seeds of the Olglom fruit with a dried piece of the fruit that could be chewed for the taste in the centre, Asla absolutely hated the fruit, she couldn't stand the taste or the smell of it and Atris knew that.

"Don't you look after your son" Atris moved over to the map table, it showed the area around their islands with small wooden ship representing fleets in the area, "he's running around covered in filth"

"You're his father, why didn't you stop him?"

"We needed to talk, Estra is encroaching on our territory" the pirate lord picked up and examined the detail on one of the ships, "she managed to ambush me but I was able to send her running"

Asla put her pistol down and stood up, "Expanding in to her territory wouldn't be the worst idea" she shuffled the maps a bit and brought up one that showed the area just north of theirs and then moved over to a case that contained more maps, "did you take the map of Estra's territory?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

Asla sighed and moved back to the map table, "This is the territory of Mast and few other pirates, I was planning on bringing them under our control, I've gotten a few of the smaller pirate fleets to join us already but if we can destroy Estra then the rest will fold without much effort"

"Our territory would double with half the effort and together Estra stands no chance" Atris was impressed, "my fleet will be in repairs for a few months but Kasey and his fleet will be raiding near there, we can send him in to harass her ships and soften her up"

"I guess we have months to plan then, Ovis will be older than us by then" Asla played her concerns off as a joke

Although she had never said anything Atris knew the speed of Ovis' growth and the other superhuman abilities their son demonstrated had concerned her, the two had spent the year after finding him sailing together to solidify their combined authority and only a week after they had found him Ovis was walking and a month later were his fist words. It had concerned Atris as well but he ignored it and treated Ovis as he did his own son, and so had Asla.

"He is still our son, remember that"

"I know, I just find myself wondering where he really came from, who are his real parents?" Asla asked the questions that had been on Atris' mind since finding the child, "as much as everyone wants to say he's divine what we found him in was made by a man"

"I know, the pod is still in the vault but it's no help"

"I feel that something's going on here" Asla picked up one of the ship markers, "like someone is using us as pieces on a board and I don't like it"

"At least we get to make our own moves"


	5. Blade in the mist

5\. Blade in the mist

It had been almost a decade since Aeoran had fallen to Solaero and much had changed about the little village he grew up in. The small settlement had grown so much that it had gained a name, being called Aldra after the village's great hero, Aldean. More and more people were coming to the village from further and further flung peaks. Since his injury in the battle against the monster of the Forgotten veil Aldean had risen to become the village chief and helped train the novice mist walkers. But Aeoran had changed as well, he was a grown man now, young and beautiful, the prophesied saviour stood twice the height of most men in the village and was stronger than all the men in the village, combined, every available woman in the village was after him but the young man seemed content to remain unmarried for now.

Aeoran walked through the village, greeting the many familiar faces as he went, his destination was a cliff at the very edge of the village. As he approached he could see someone standing on the edge of the cliff and looking down in to the swirling mist below.

"You gonna jump Alrean?" the giant asked as he joined the man, who he could now see was pissing over the cliff

Alrean was young with the typical pale skin and shoulder length black hair although he was quite muscular for someone for Solaero, he looked like he was in his late teens and seeing them together most would think that Aeoran was the elder even though he was actually younger by almost a decade.

"I'll be down there soon enough, no need to rush"

Alrean and Aeoran had been friends for years, the latter seeing the former as a big brother when he was younger although the primarch's accelerated aging had allowed him to become the older brother pretty quickly. The two were preparing to descend in to the mist for the first time, something they had been talking about since they were young.

"Are you sure about going down?" Alrean asked, "Do you really want your last pack to be made by your mother?"

"If anyone is gonna die down there it's you" Aeoran looked down at his friend

Despite being quite young Alrean had recently gotten married, it was what made boys men and girls women on Solaero and it was traditional that married men were the ones hunting in the mists, it is believed that they fight harder than unmarried men although Aeoran didn't concern himself with that superstition.

"I'll just stick close and let you kill all the beasts"

"Or I could just watch as they kill you"

The two laughed as they moved over to the group of men gathering and heading to the peak of the mountain. The climb wasn't difficult, especially for Aeoran, but it took all the men about an hour to reach the peak. Sitting alone, above the cloud blanket in a sun bleached world, was a small alter inscribed with swirling runes and surrounded by the skulls of several great beasts. Aeoran got to his knees and bowed his head as he prayed for safety and bounty; he prayed to the wrathful god of battle to give them courage, the fatherly god of life and decay to watch over them and spare them from death, the generous god of excess to give the a plentiful hunt and the mysterious god of the mists to guide them on the right path. Once the prayers had been said and offerings burned the group climbed back down to their village.

Aeoran went over to where his parents stood, his father holding a sheathed sword and using a cane to support himself, "You're almost a man" his father said as they shared a smile

"Be careful" his mother warned as she handed him his father's pack, "I made you extra rations and packed extra water, you're a big boy after all"

"Remember always keep your ear sharp" his father gave him a pat on the arm, he was clearly worried but was masking it for his son's sake

"I'll be fine" he bent down and embraced his parents

Aeoran looked at the ancient bag for a second, watching the myriad charms sway in the light breeze, focusing on the new one his mother carved for him, he shouldered the bag and took the sword from his father. He unsheathed the sword, Mist cutter, watching the polished blade ripple and reflect the dull sun light, the long sword looked more like a short sword in his giant hands but it would serve him well. Aeoran sheathed the blade. The plasma pistol Fen's wrath was too small for him and had been given to the leader of their expedition, an experienced mist walker named Solodiel.

The group of mist walkers gathered by the village gate and their leader led them through and in to the mist. They descended in silence, none of the men seemed to be particularly nervous or sacred of their first expedition, most likely due to the presence of the giant Aeoran; he was stronger, faster and more skilled than any mist walker in the village and probably the planet.

The expedition soon found themselves in the mist and went about their work. They spent weeks hunting the docile mammals and avoiding the common hunting grounds of the beasts but their fortune had to run out eventually.

The fog was particularly thick as the group waded through a field of knee height grass, Solodiel planned to lead them to a wooded area he knew was nearby and set some traps so they could wake up to breakfast. They had been wandering for hours, night would be soon and many were getting worried they were lost, something that could become a death sentence in the mist.

"We're gonna die" Alrean muttered as he swept his weapon across the mist

They all had beast forged weapons so fighting off beast wasn't a problem but if they were lost then they would eventually be worn down, surviving in the mist was impossible.

Alrean felt his foot brush against something that wasn't the grass, "Hey!" he got the groups attention as he knelt down to investigate, "Check this out"

Alrean was smiling as he pulled up an unassuming green plant, it's roots were thick and covered in dirt, "Sweetroot" he identified it as he pulled out and cut the thick brown skin away from one of the roots to reveal a fleshy white inside, Alrean bit down on the root and started sucking, "Definitely sweetroot"

Sweetroot was a plant that only grew in the mist, its roots were used to sweeten foods and make some sweet delicacies that were rare treats for their village and its leaves were useful in making medicines, in 10 years of life Aeoran has only tasted sweetroot once. Alrean grinned like an idiot as he found a few other plants nearby, sweetroot was worth three times its weight in gold, it would fetch a fortune if the village didn't use it all up first.

"Good find" Solodiel gave Alrean a pat on his back, "Seems we're getting lucky this expedition"

"I think all the beasts are just afraid of Aeoran" one of the men joked

"I would be" another said as everyone laughed

They started to head out when the voice in the back of Aeoran's head whispered to him.

_Stop him_

The primarch grabbed the back of his friend's collar and pulled him back just as a razor-sharp needle flew past, "NEEDLE TAIL!" Solodiel shouted as everyone readied their weapons and searched the mist for the beast

_Kordiel_

Aeoran felt it, "KORDIEL DUCK!" he shouted at one of the men but he didn't listen and a needle flew through the man's chest

"SOLODIEL!" their leader heeded the warning and rolled out of the way as another needle whizzed past from a different direction, the beast was circling them

They pulled together in to a circle with Aeoran in the centre, "If I say your name shoot, you'll know what at" Aeoran focused as he raised mist cutter

"ALREAN!" a needle flew straight at the mist walker but he didn't flinch, he ignored it and shot where he estimated the beast to be and before the needle hit him a blade swept across his vision and knocked it away

The screech of an injured beast was heard as more needles flew at the group but Aeoran was faster, knocking away the needles with inhuman speed as the other mist walkers shot at the beast. It must have realised its needles weren't working and so it changed to a direct attack, the Needle tail charged out of the mist towards the mist walkers with frightening speed. Needle tails looked like large felines, slightly smaller than a horse, with white fur that had swirls of dark blue or black in it, large razor-sharp needles ran down their spines and covered their tails, that they would whip around to throw said needles at prey.

Aeoran jumped over his fellow mist walkers and blocked the Needle tail's claws as it swung at them, he ducked as the needle filled tail whipped around to take his head off. The primarch dodged and blocked the beast's every attack without even looking.

_Duck_

_Block _

_Parry _

The voice guided him, his gut told him where the attacks would come from, with his super natural speed Aeoran soon found an opening and just as quickly slashed the beast's throat.

"That was fucking crazy" Alrean walked over to check out the Needle tail's body, "You were fucking crazy"

Aeoran didn't say anything as he knelt down and took off the beast's head, "Can't leave without a trophy"

After claiming the beast's head he went over to the body of Kordiel, he was still alive, the needle had ripped through the right side of his chest but they didn't have the means to heal or take care of him in the village and especially not in the mist. His breathing was short and quite ragged, he knew he was going to die.

He looked at Aeoran as the primarch knelt beside him, knife at the ready, "I thought the beasts were afraid of you" he laughed and started coughing up blood

Aeoran knew Kordiel well, the man had taught him how to climb when they were younger and was always the first to take up a dare no matter how stupid. His wife was pregnant with their first and now only child but widows were nothing new in this line of work.

"I guess this beast was particularly brave" the two laughed

"Your gonna tell them right" he was obviously referring to his unborn child, "That their father was brave and how awesome I was"

"I'm gonna tell them their father was an idiot who couldn't duck to save his life" Kordiel practically burst out laughing right before Aeoran stuck the knife in his throat, right through his jugular and severing his spine, he still had a smile on his face as he died

The expedition took what they could from his body, taking the charms off his bag and laying them around his body, they didn't bury bodies on Solaero, no space or time to, they closed his eyes and left him laying in the middle of the field.

They continued hunting in the mist, occasionally coming across a beast or two and losing a few more men but Aeoran was always able to best them. His moves were fluid and instinctive, moving like he knew exactly where the attacks would come from and he did. It was a whisper in his ear and a feeling in his gut that he had to do this or that to stay alive or gain victory.

The expedition was moving through the thick fog of a forest when their leader stopped them all, he could see something through the mist and it didn't look like a tree. Aeoran walked up behind Solodiel as the older man was trying to discern what the shadow was, it wasn't moving so it probably wasn't a beast but some of the beasts were tricky and there were things in the mist they had yet to learn about.

"I think it's a house" Aeoran's superior sight easily cut though the mist and he could see it was a house

Solodiel allowed the group to advance and they found themselves in a village, the houses were ruined and overgrown with weeds but some of the houses still stood. It was a lost village, a settlement used by their ancestors when they lived on the surface of the planet, they were always treasure troves of lost tech that could be sold or repurposed.

The villages were the first to be abandoned when the mist fell and pretty much everything they used was left behind. The spread out and started to search the houses, Aeoran easily pushed down a rotting door and squeezed his bulk through the door frame, the house stood alone with multiple small rooms on the first floor and more probably on the second floor, Aeoran moved in to a room with a few collapsed and rotted couches and several faded pictures on the walls. It showed a family; a mother, father and their daughter, there were mostly pictures of the daughter showing her from an infant growing up in to a teenager, there were no more picture after that, they looked happy and the world looked peaceful. Aeoran turned away from the pictures and started tearing the room apart looking for anything of value but found nothing of any use and anything that might have been had long since worn out.

The group met regrouped in the village square but most of them didn't find anything, just a few rusted guns they could refurbish, with nothing of value in the village they moved on and continued their expedition.

Little else happened during the expedition and over half of them made it back to their village, better than most expeditions, although many of them were injured in some way and some wouldn't descend again. Aeoran was the only one who was completely unscathed after the months long expedition.


	6. The mist king

6\. The mist King

The 2nd legion of the Legiones Astartes were one of the oldest and most decorated of the legions, known as the Second born, they had a particularly friendly rivalry with the 1st legion whose warriors would refer to themselves as the 2nd's older brothers but still the legions pushed each other to greater feats of heroism and devotion to the Imperium. The two legions had fought together during the unification wars and many early compliances of the great crusade so they had a special relationship compared to any of the other legions and were in an unofficial competition to find their primarch first.

The Second born specialised in counter insurgency/terrorism operations as well as reconnaissance and back line sabotage. They would normally be dropped behind enemy lines and disrupt communications as well as supplies while relaying any information back to the 1st who would be fighting on the front lines, the two legions together were an unstoppable pair and before the coming of the other legions were referred to as the wings that would lift the Imperium to the stars.

The 2nd didn't suffer from any gene flaw like later legions would but brothers of the 2nd would occasionally report to their captains of a voice forewarning them of danger but this was written off as a minor psychological flaw, not inherent in the geneseed and ignored due to the small number of cases.

Casis Thal was the legion master of the Second born, a grim man who rarely smiled and even more rarely made a joke, his face was scarred from many battles and his left arm was cybernetic but he was always a leader who led from the front and was fearsome in battle.

Currently the 2nd legion were battling on the planet Sarra, a desert planet with great oases that the people built their great fortress cities around. The astartes and their mortal allies dug in to great trench networks that surrounded the last resisting city on the planet, for months their artillery had pounded the walls nonstop and enemy raids against them were starting to take a toll on the regular men among them but Thal hadn't ordered an attack on the walls so they waited.

Tatin Erstwal, Captain of the 5th company, he was young and compared to his legion master he was a joker but he was a commander who had a deep brotherhood with his warriors though he was quick to censure any dissent and didn't tolerate any to disobey his orders. He hated having to sit in a trench all day but he trusted his legion master. The 5th were assembled in force along with the other companies of the legion, they had mostly spent the last month spread around the trenches to repel the enemies raids but now they had gathered and it seemed like an attack on the walls was imminent but even after they had gathered they were being held back.

The air was tense as Thal looked over the top of the trench and across the shell battered no man's land that separated them from the city walls, he stood poised as he pointed his periscope and focused on the large gates of the city.

"Come on" he muttered as he looked to the clock in the corner of his helmet's HUD, slowly ticking to the hour, "Come on"

As the clock ticked over the hour Thal saw the gates begin to open, he opened up his vox caster and amplified himself so all could hear, "OVER THE TOP MEN! FOR THE EMPEROR! FOR THE SECOND!"

Thal was the first over as he raced to the gates, Tatin could see battle brothers and mortal soldiers already battling the Sarrans inside the gate, Thal must have been coordinating an insurgency inside the city for months and they had finally opened the gates for them.

Artillery on the city walls rained down on the astartes but they fearlessly ran onwards, the speed afforded by their gene enhancement and power armour getting them across no man's land in little time and allowing the full might of the Second born to smash in to the gates and flood the city.

The Sarrans were quite technologically advanced with laser weapons that could pierce power armour in a few shots but their warriors were just mortal men and no match for the Emperor's angels of death. Tatin fired his bolter as the enemy took cover in doorways and fired down from windows, it didn't take long to secure a foothold at the gates and secure the wall around it. The legion spread out from the gate and took the city block by block and building by building, brutally clearing out any and all resistance, now that they were in it was only a matter of time but the Sarrans resisted with everything they had and they had alot.

The fighting raged on for months as the Sarrans forced the astartes to fight for every single room in the city until the defenders had been pushed back to the central palace, their centre of government, where they had entrenched themselves. It was a large building, made out of a strong sandstone the Sarrans knew how to make, a sprawling complex of open air plazas and squares and large open plan rooms all set around the large oasis that sustained the city.

Tatin knelt behind the rubble of some building as he fired at the dug in defenders with a squad of brothers at his side, the 5th had been tasked with advancing from the west along with the 6th company but they were staring to sustain heavy losses as the fanatical defenders did every thing they could to keep them back.

The Sarrans had resorted to hiding operatives amongst the civilian population to try and recruit for a partisan group or to carry out suicidal attacks on key Imperial targets but the Second born were experts in countering such tactics and the Sarran opposition was being whittled down quickly, forcing them to become even more desperate.

Tatin voxed brother-Sargent Kasin who was nearby with his devastator squad, "Light them up" he ordered as Kasin and his squad strafed the enemy trench line with heavy bolter fire, turning the Sarrans in to clouds of pink mist or forcing them back in to their trench, "Advance now!"

Tatin rushed forward along with the other squads of his company as their devastator squads supplied suppressive and mortar cover for them. Tatin sprayed fired down in to the trench as he reached it and jumped in, the 5th captain drew his chainsword and started hacking through the nearby Sarrans as he fired his bolter off at distant enemies. It only took a few bloody hours for them to gain the first trench line and start advancing on the second, by the end of the day the defenders had been forced back in to the building itself although at cost to the 5th and 6th.

The 5th and 6th were the first companies to achieve their objectives though artillery was being brought up, despite the other companies still fighting for their trenches, to bombard the building and hopefully force a surrender.

Tatin moved through the formally enemy held trench as the two sides took pot shots at each other and the constant firing of artillery boomed at regular intervals, they had bombarded the building for a full day but the Sarrans held strong and still fired back, Tatin had to admire their tenacity in the face of inevitable defeat.

"These bastards are hard" Kasin walked up to his captain, "You gotta wonder why"

"Intelligence says they think the oases are gifts from their god, that's probably why"

"If their god was real he would help them"

The two laughed and went about their duties as they waited for the other companies to consolidate their gains so they could push in to the building itself. It wasn't long before Tatin received the order over the vox to prepare for the final assault, the enemy had been forced in to the palace in its entirety and they could finally finish this compliance.

* * *

The village of Aldra, well closer to a town now, was flourishing thanks to longer and more successful expeditions in to the mist, it wasn't just Aeoran's skill in battle that allowed the people of his village survive in the mist but his great intellect and skill at crafts allowed him to build powerful weapons for the mist walkers, being the only person on the planet that could create weapons comparable to beast forged ones. Aeoran also convinced the leaders of the other villages on the peak to join with theirs in to a confederation. It was a great time for the people of their mountain peak, they didn't have to worry about starvation or food shortages and less of their men were dying in the mist, it was all thanks to Aeoran and people further afield were taking notice, of the village and him.

The beloved giant walked though his home as the people stopped to greet him, men helping to improve and repair the mud brick houses shouted hellos from the tops of rooves and ladies stopping him in the streets to chat but he was in a bit of a rush and had to cut most of the conversations short.

Aeoran made his way to the field he and the other village children played in when he was young, he was only 15 but he looked as grown as any man in the village, in the middle of the field a building stood alone, it looked like any other house in the village but it wasn't, it was the meeting place for the leaders of the four villages on their peak and they were meeting right now.

Most villages or towns on Solaero fended for themselves although the ones close to the few cities on the planet would normally fall under their rule, the various settlements would usually trade with each other and that was the extent of their contact mostly due to how difficult it was to move about, the bridges connecting peaks weren't always reliable and even the roads between villages on the same peak could be dangerous, Aeoran had changed that by putting the men of all the villages to work fixing and improving the roads between the villages and he even got them to start pooling their food and other resources so none of them needed to worry about shortages.

The council building, as the villagers called it, was a simple building, a single room with a round wood table and five simple wooden chairs around it. Only one chair was empty, the biggest one, the others were already occupied by the leaders of the villages. Aeoran took his seat, to his right was his father who was starting to grey with age and grow fat from not being able to exercise thanks to his crippled leg, to the primarch's left was the oldest man at the table pale and withered with only a few strands of thin grey hair, Orodiel, he was the leader of the closest village to Aldra. The other two men at the table were closer to his father's age and both clearly former mist walkers, one was completely missing his right arm with jagged scars down his face from the beast that also took his right eye, Korsiel, he led the village on the far side of the peak. The last man was older than his father and had probably stopped descending due to age, his hair was completely grey and starting to fall out, the leader of the last village was Aeorean.

Aeoran's place in this council was to mediate any disagreements between the villages and despite growing up in Aldra, and being the son of its leader, he was trusted to remain impartial, which he did as best he could and no one had complained about his judgments yet.

The leaders greeted Aeoran as he sat and he returned the greeting, "So why have we gathered?" Aeoran asked, the council normally met once a month to put forward new ideas and air grievances but Korsiel had called for them to meet

Korsiel pulled out a folded scrap of paper and handed it across the table to Aeoran, "A Kawl flew in to my village and delivered this, it's from Aeoror for Aeoran"

Aeoror was one of the cities on Solaero and the most powerful, it rose to prominence after the fall of Old Solra and ruled over a small kingdom which was impressive on Solaero. Aeoran unfolded the message, it congratulated him on his successes in the mist and with the villages on his peak and it invited him to Aeoror to talk to its King about some kind of alliance, signed by the King himself. Aeoran's gut didn't tell him anything, which wasn't strange but he felt it should be telling him something.

"Are you going to go?" Korsiel asked, clearly having read the message before

"Well I doubt the King will appreciate me turning him down" Aeoran knew their little coalition shouldn't get on the bad side of one of the cities, "How long would it take to travel to Aeoror?"

"if all the bridges are in working order, which I doubt, then half a month maybe" Aeorean answered after a second of thought, "you could request a balloon"

Travel on Solaero was hard and if the bridges had collapsed from ware or by some other means then it could be impossible so those that could afford it would travel with balloons but only rich towns or cities or wealthy merchants could afford to maintain a balloon, although the power of Aeoror meant they certainly had a fleet of them.

"How long if I travel through the mist?"

The men were surprised but if anyone could survive in the mist then it was Aeoran, "About a week although you will pass close to Old Solra" Aeorean told him, "Although I don't know who you're gonna get to go with you"

"I'll go" Aldean volunteered to the surprise of everyone, "Your mother will bite my ears off if I let you go off to some strange new place alone"

"You can't walk" Aeorean pointed out

"Aeoran is a strong lad, I can shoot from his back"

"If he's going to be carrying you then a withered old man won't be too much extra weight" Orodiel's willingness to go surprised everyone even more

"You're crazy old man, you will die" Korsiel looked at the two like they had gone mad

"When you get to my age you won't care either"

"I suppose I have one last descent in me" Aeorean wasn't one to be out done by an old man and a cripple, he turned to Korsiel, "Won't you join us venerable mist walker? Even though they only invited Aeoran I think we should all be there"

"Aye" Aeoran and the other two men sounded their agreement

Korsiel sighed, "Fine but if any of you get in to trouble don't expect me to help you"

The five men agreed to travel to Aeoror together and meet with its King as a united front, they would gather the veteran mist walkers of all four of the villages and head to Aeoror.

Aeoran sought out Alrean personally, wanting to have his good friend with him. He found the man play fighting with a small boy who was probably no older than 5 and he seemed to be losing.

"Maybe I should ask your son to come with me instead" Aeoran joked as he walked up to them

"AEORAN!" the boy practically screamed as he smiled at the giant

"Hey Alasiel" the primarch chuckled as he pat the boy, his giant hand eclipsing the child's head, "I need to talk to your father, go and find your mother"

Alasiel ran off and left the two men alone, "I've been invited to Aeoror" Aeoran became serious, "And I want you to accompany me"

"That's a long journey and we only came back from the mist a few months ago, I can't be gone that long again"

"We'll be going through the mist, it will take a week at most to get there and we can get a balloon back, 2 and a half weeks at most"

Alrean looked at him like he was talking another language, "You want to travel through the mist, you do know it's not a peaceful grazing field"

"I know, I'll protect you if you're scared"

Alrean knew from the moment Aeoran asked that he would be going no matter what but he could still display his displeasure at having to go, he let out a long groan before relenting, "My wife is gonna kill me for this, if I don't come back you'll have to explain it to her"

"If you don't come back neither am I, that woman terrifies me" the two laughed

"When do we leave?"

"In a week"

The week passed quickly and the mist walkers were assembled around Aldra's gate with their families, Aeoran had his father and Orodiel strapped to his back and the two were wielding carbines built by him, the primarch knelt down as he said goodbye to his mother.

"I don't like what you're doing but I trust you so come back safe" Elia stood on her toes to give her son a kiss on the forehead, "And don't let your father talk you in to anything stupid"

"I can take care of myself woman" his father shouted over his shoulder

"I'll believe that when I see it" his mother shook her head before turning back to Aeoran, she pulled out a stone she had carved, "I know it's not an actual descent but take this"

"Thanks"

"Don't I get one?" His father asked ruining the touching moment

"I was going to but since you're so nosey no"

"Should have married your sister" Aldean muttered under his breath

"You better hope those beasts get you"

"Love you too" his father chuckled as he said goodbye to his mother

Aeoran walked over to where Alrean was saying goodbye to his family, he was pinching little Alasiel's cheeks while a short unassuming woman looked on with a smile. Aslia had known Alrean all his life and when Aeoran had been brought to the village the three of them had become friends. She had always been the voice of reason in their group and stopped the boys from killing themselves more times than they knew, she was a domineering girl and age hadn't softened her.

"You better bring him back" Aslia turned to Aeoran as she saw him approach, "Or don't it will prove he should always listen to me"

"I'll keep him safe" Aeoran bent down and hugged his long time friend, "I'll be back soon"

Aeoran stood at the head of the group with Korsiel and Aeorean either side of him, he took a deep breath before he drew Mist cutter and stepped forward in to the mist.

They fought ferociously for days and everyone who survived the journey through the mist would remember it for the rest of their lives, with the skill and strength of Aeoran the beasts stood little chance and by the time the reached the base of Aeoror they had the heads of 20 beast to present to its King.

They climbed the path up the mountain and arrived at the gates, much to the surprise of the guards, they had sent a Kawl saying they would make the journey to Aeoror but the officals had assumed it would take them at least a month to reach them, they weren't ready and quickly scrambled to give them a proper welcome

The peak of the mountain that Aeoror sat on had been cut off in an age long past and allowed the city to be bigger that any on the planet. The city itself was completely different to Aldra; its buildings were much bigger and made of stone instead of mud brick, the roads were paved instead of being a beaten trail and even the people looked healthier and better fed than those from his village. Word spread quick about the giant and his party who arrived through the mist, people came out in droves to catch a glimpse of Aeoran and the others as they were escorted through the city by armed guards carrying spears and shields bearing the severed head of Fen, the heraldry of Aeoror.

At the centre of the city, through winding streets and boulevards, stood the castle of the King of Aeoror, surrounded by a 20 foot walls and standing tall and proud over the city, it was said to have been build before the mist fell on their world and the King's family had ruled from it since the time of the legendary Aeoran.

They arrived at the gates and waiting for them was a thin man with a bald head, his face looked ageless so it was hard to guess how old he was. He bowed to Aeoran and greeted them.

"I am Casiel advisor to the King of Aeoror, we were expecting you at a much later date so his majesty is busy preparing a feast to welcome you all" the man smiled wide but it didn't seem the slightest bit genuine, "The feast will be ready soon I will show you and your companions to your rooms and guards will come and get you when everything is ready"

Aeoran was starting to get a bad feeling about everything but they were here and they couldn't just leave. Casiel took them to the rooms they would be staying in, they were luxurious and bigger than any house in Aldra; the centre of the room was taken up by a large bed with an actual mattress and not a pile of dried grass, there was a bath with actually running water and a hundred other things they could never have in their little village, it really showed the difference between Aeoror and Aldra.

They didn't have to wait long for the King to summon them for the feast. They all wore their leather mist walker armour, although they washed off the beast blood, and carried their primarch forged carbines as a small show of power, Aeoran stood behind the guards leading them to the feast hall with Mist cutter at his hip. The feast hall was large with great tables that were filled with food of every kind; fruits, meats, wines, pies, cheeses and even the flesh of some beasts. Presiding over the entire thing from a throne elevated above the tables was an obese balding man wearing fine robes dyed red and silver, he was the King of Aeoror. The room was already filled with nobility and government officials but they sat around the edge of the hall and the central table, right in front of the King, was reserved for Aeoran and his party. Aeoran made his way to the seat directly to the King's right and bowed to him.

"I thank you for the invitation your majesty"

The king looked Aeoran over, assessing him and his worth, even elevated as he was the two were face to face, "I had heard you were a large man but I didn't expect a giant" his voice sounded muffled and laboured, considering his size it probably was a labour to speak, "I am Radiel the 7th of Aeoror and I welcome you to my city Aeoran"

"It is a pleasure to meet you King Radiel" Aeoran and his group took their seats

His father sat directly opposite Aeoran with Orodiel next to him and Aeorean next to the primarch. Aeoran looked around at everyone else in the room and saw some of them were also armed like his group so at least they hadn't broken some etiquette. Radiel stood, with the help of some aides, and raised a golden goblet, everyone else followed and so did Aeoran and his men.

"We welcome the noble Aeoran and his companions who braved the dangers of the mist to get here with all haste, a bold move, something his name sake would do, now dedicate your first sip to the gods and eat and enjoy yourselves to your heart's content"

Everyone sounded their agreement and drank down their wine at the same time as the feast began, his father and everyone else ate like starved animals but Aeoran was more interested in talking to the King, he didn't need to eat much anyway.

"Has word of me really reach this far?" he asked as he sipped the wine

"Word of your exploits and power have reached further than you know" Radiel answered him between mouthfuls of food, "There are few around these parts that don't know your name, but I wanted to hear about the coalition of villages you manage to set up, it's rare for villages to ally"

"It wasn't easy convincing the three stubborn Capris' but after explaining that each village would have more food, weapons and other resources if we pooled and divided them then they eventually got on board" Aeoran explained how the four villages covered each other's weakest points and grew stronger

"Interesting, you didn't use any military force to make them join you?"

"No just my words and charm"

Aeoror was governed completely opposite to Aldra and its allies, Aeoror took the wealth and resources from the villages and towns under it's grip and rarely gave anything back and if any refused or tried to rebel then the might of Aeoror's military crushed them, Aeoran's ideas of mutual benefits and his charm would make him dangerous to the future of Aeoror but that was why the King had invited him to the feast.

_Something's wrong_

Aeoran heard the whisper for the first time since getting the King's message, he was dropping a slice of meat in to his mouth as he was overcome with a feeling of unease. Time seemed to slow as Aeoran looked around the room and started to notice things were off; the guards had repositioned themselves around the room and were concentrated around the King and Aeoran, the armed guests weren't eating at all and just seemed to be fingering their weapons in anticipation and most suspicious of all, the King had stopped eat for the first time during the feast.

Radiel looked the primarch in the eyes as a satisfied smile spread across his face and he raised his goblet high.

_It's a trap_

"IT'S A TRAP!" Aeoran jumped up as gunmen appeared from balconies overlooking the hall

Orodiel was the first to die, a bullet through the throat before he could even get up, everyone drew their weapons and started firing at the guards and armed men but most were quickly shot or stabbed to death. Aeoran watched his father kill two guards near him and point his carbine at the King only to take a bullet to the shoulder and be run through with spears. Aeoran fought with fury as he cut down any man who came near him, bullets and blades cutting in to his flesh as he tried to reach the traitorous King, a spear ripped through his back and right through his heart as he fell to his knees, covered in a thousand wounds.

"Why?" he looked at Radiel with pure hatred

"You're dangerous" was the simple answer he got as the King looked down on him, "The mist seers foresaw you ruling over our world, I can't allow that"

Guards surrounded the kneeling primarch and thrust their spears at him as everything went black.

* * *

Next time: The old city of mist


	7. The old city of mist

7\. The old city of mist

He cracked his eyes open, it was cold and wet and the mist hung thick around him. His superhuman biology had healed his wounds and every trace of them was gone but the memory was burned in to his brain. The sight of his father, friends and men who trusted him to protect them being slaughtered by that pathetic excuse for a king. Aeoran sat up and took in his surroundings, he was in a body pit, where Solaerans disposed of their dead, he sat in a field of bodies that stretched out in to the mists. He looked down at the bodies he sat on and was greeted by the pallid, almost green, face of his father and the other men who came with him, they had been stripped of their weapons and armour, even the primarch had been stripped of everything. Seeing the lifeless eyes of his father and the bodies of his comrades being picked apart by scavengers Aeoran couldn't hold his tears back and he let out a mournful cry that could be heard all the way up the mountain and in the city of Aeoror itself.

Aeoran lost track of time as he sat amongst the bodies crying at his own failure and foolishness. He had no weapons or armour but he was a primarch; he could tear his way through Aeoror, he could raze it to the ground, he could rip that king limb from limb and cast his broken body in to the mist. No he should, he will, he will scrub any memory of that king and his kingdom from history. Aeoran stood up and approached the sheer rock face that would lead him to the city, to the object of his rage and vengeance, to a normal man it would look impossible to climb but for a primarch it was a simple thing. Aeoran placed his hand on the rock face and prepared to climb but as he lifted himself off the morbid ground of the pit his enhanced hearing picked up a sound, a sound that should exist amongst the dead, the sound of shallow breathing, of someone barely alive.

Aeoran followed the sound and fell to his knees as he dug through the bodies of his friends and there, just under a layer of bodies, was Alrean, pale and barely conscious but alive. The primarch wept as he pulled his friend to the surface and looked over his wounds, his stomach was punctured and he had several other wounds, he was barely alive and every second he got closer to death. Aeoran quickly scrambled to find cloth to dress his wounds, revenge against his enemies would have to wait, he had more important things to take care of.

It took Aeoran and his party a week to travel from Aldra to Aeoror but that was only because of the limits of normal men, Aeoran didn't have those limits. He ran as fast as his genetically superior legs would carry him, barrelling through any obstacle in his path, for a day and a night he ran faster than any human, animal or machine until he arrived at the base of his home peak. He burst through the gates, tearing them off their hinges, and fell to his knees in the middle of his village.

"HELP!" he cried with all his might, waking up the entire peak, "SOMEONE HELP"

In no time the entire village came out to see Aeoran crying over the dying body of his friend. The healers got to work in no time and runners were sent to get healers from the other villages as Aeoran knelt on the ground, content to rest for a moment.

His mother pushed her way through the crowd and made her way to her distressed son, "What happened? Where's your father?" She asked, holding the primarch's face and looking in to his eyes

She didn't need him to answer, she figured it out and pulled him in to her embrace, "It's ok" she whispered in to his ear as she soothed him like she did when he was a baby

The primarch soon recovered his mental condition, he was the last leader left on the peak and he couldn't wallow in despair for long. He stood and looked around at the entirety of his village, Radiel wanted to crush him and his people but he would not allow that.

"Gather everyone" Aeoran commanded

"Everyone?" someone questioned

"Everyone from all the villages" there was no longer four leaders leading four villages, there was just him

Every man, woman and child from the four villages on the peak were summoned and soon Aeoran was surrounded by people demanding to know what happened and where the rest of his group was.

"It was a trap" Aeoran started as he explained everything to the people

By the end the crowd was outraged and most were calling for them to march on Aeoror and raze it to the ground and as much as Aeoran wanted to lead them in such a campaign, he knew they didn't have the weapons, experience or manpower to even break the city's defences. Aeoran calmed the crowd and tried to think of the next move.

"Who will lead us?" one of the crowd cried out as he took a moment to collect his thoughts

"Aeoran" another shouted before the primarch could react, "He's the only one left who can lead us"

Soon everyone was chanting his name and it was decided that he would lead, not just his village but all four, he had no say or choice in the matter despite his efforts to reject the offer, he was the only one who could lead the villages through this crisis, it was what he had to do. After a few hours Aeoran calmed the crowd down without accepting the position as leader, he had just gotten his own father and the previous leaders killed thanks to his own foolishness. The sun was starting to rise as Aeoran finally put some proper clothes on and went to check on Alrean. His friend lay in bed, covered in bloody bandages with his wife and son by his side, he could barely bring himself to look at Alrean or his family. Aslia approached the giant, she could tell what he was thinking, she always could.

"Thank you" she said as she pulled him in to a hug, "I asked you to bring him back and you did"

She called over Alasiel and left Aeoran alone with Alrean. He knelt next to his unconscious friend for a few minutes, watching his steady breathing and looking at the many wounds he had, Alrean should have died but he held on. Was it because he knew Aeoran would save him or was he just too stubborn to die?

"I'm sorry I dragged you in to this" Aeoran hung his head, "I'm sorry I got you all involved in this, I should have gone alone"

"Then you would have gotten yourself killed" a weak voice came from Alrean's lips as he opened his eyes

"Alrean!" Aeoran almost wept with joy at seeing his old friend awake again, he still looked weak but at least he was talking

"You would've climbed back up that mountain to kill that bastard and gotten yourself killed"

"I could've done it"

"It's fine, I don't blame you for what happened and neither would your father or anyone else" with great effort Alrean reached for Aeoran's shoulder and looked right in to his eyes, "It was that king's fault and you'll make him pay, one day"

"Soon"

Alrean nodded, "Soon"

Aeoran smiled for the first time since the betrayal, "Get some rest, you need to be with me when I kill that bastard"

Alrean closed his eyes and Aeoran just sat with his friend. Everyone stayed in Aldra, instead of going back to their villages and getting to work like usual, just about everyone was trying to figure out what to do after this tragedy. Aeoror was now their enemy but they couldn't strike at a city so powerful, they needed allies and they needed to make them fast. When Aeoran finally emerged from Alrean's house he saw the entire population of the peak sitting on the ground and eating breakfast, large pots and platters of food had been laid out and everyone was eating as the elders discussed their future.

The crowd fell silent as Aeoran walked out, waiting for see what he would do, would he lead them? And where would he lead them? Aeoran commanded their full attention.

"I will lead you" He declared with a strong voice that was heard clearly across the village, "We will avenge our dead and show Aeoror our fury!"

Everyone roared in approval as they chanted his name. If he was to destroy Aeoror then he would need an army, something he didn't have, but at least for now he could train the men he did have.

The other three villages were mostly abandoned, razed to provide arable land or grazing fields, everyone moved to Aldra as Aeoran drilled the population in to an army. The anger was visible to anyone who watched them train, everyone knew someone who had been killed in the Aeororan betrayal and they would have justice. Whenever Aeoran wasn't drilling the men he was crafting weapons and armour for them to use, day and night he worked, forgoing sleep as he put everything he felt in to his works.

It had only been two weeks and while everyone slept Aeoran worked on a blade, honing it to a razors edge like every other blade he made. He was completely focused on the task until his superhuman ears picked up a sound approaching his mountain, it was the low rumbling of an engine, several of them, it took only a second for Aeoran to realise what they were. He ran out of his workshop and his superior eyes cut through the darkness, allowing him to see as clear in the night as in day, several balloons a couple of miles out were heading straight for them and emblazoned on each of them was the severed head of Fen.

Aeoran worked quickly and woke the entire village, he rushed to arm every adult and get the children somewhere safe as the balloons came in to view for normal men. Everyone quickly slipped in to armour as they armed themselves with the primarch crafted carbines and blades. The children and old people were hidden in the council building on the far side of the village and everyone else hid in the houses, lying in wait for their enemy.

The balloons cast a shadow over their village as ropes fell from their bellies and men rappelled down in to the village square, several of the men were armed with familiar weapons, Aeoran recognised the weapons that had been ripped from his dead friends' hands after they were betrayed. Aeoran let out a rage filled scream as the villagers burst out from hiding and ambushed their attackers, the confused Aeororans were helpless as they were caught in cross fire. The invaders soon started firing back but they had been surrounded from the moment they landed in Aldra, the Aeororans believed it would be easy to sneak in and slaughter the little village and its allies but they weren't prepared for their expert crafted weapons and their burning rage.

The invaders fought desperately as they threw incendiaries through widows and attempted to retreat to cover, they had the numbers but they were also suffering much higher attrition compared to the villagers and had been caught off guard, it wouldn't be long before they were completely slaughtered.

Aeoran picked up a blade and charged at the invaders with a murderous cry as he slaughtered multiple men with single slashes, the primarch let go for the first time and used his full strength and speed. The Aeororans were like scared little children as they faced down a god of war, it didn't take long for the primarch to slaughter the invading army, much to the surprise of the balloon operators who were only able to watch from above.

As the balloons attempted to retreat, Aeoran grabbed some of the ropes still hanging from the belly of one and with his great strength he guided it according to his will, the primarch's muscles bulged and ripped through his shirt as he swung one balloon in to another, using it like a hammer to smash through several balloons and cause them to fall in to the mists as great fireballs. A handful of balloons managed to escape destruction and flee back to Aeoror.

Many of the houses had been destroyed or heavily damage in the fighting and many of their own had died but they had fought off Aeoror, for now. The people of Aldra got to work disposing of their dead and the bodies of the invading army over the side of the mountain. About 2,000 men had attacked them and they had lost just over 100 people in the attack, although they had a fighting population of barely 1,500. The work took them until sunrise and once again everyone gathered.

Word of Aldra's grudge or Aeoran's miraculous survival had probably reach Aeoror and they were seeking to finish the job or they never intended to let Aldra survive from the beginning, whatever the reason it was clear that Aldra and its people will suffer another attack and soon, and it was doubtful they could endure against Aeoror's might for long.

Aeoran stood at the head of a riled-up crowd that demanded action. There were no easy solutions to their problem and no matter what solution he came up with his gut told him that it would end in their destruction, the whisper in his ear told him it would only end in their deaths, until he thought of something radical, something that was near impossible for them to do but if they could do it then they would be safe from Aeoror and could foster their fury until they were ready to strike their foe.

_It will work_

"We can't stay here" Aeoran silenced the crowd with his booming voice, "We must leave or they will return again and again until we're destroyed"

"Where will we go?" one of the villagers asked, "No village will take us when they learn Aeoror want us dead"

"Somewhere Aeoror won't follow us, where they can't follow us"

It took a second for everyone to realise what he was talking about, "You can't be serious" Alrean limped forward with help of crutches and his wife, "We have women, children, old and sick people, even the men that can fight in the mist won't survive forever down there"

"Beasts are everywhere down there" someone shouted out, "We'll be torn apart"

"There's no land to grow anything or shelter" another person pointed out, "We'll starve soon enough"

They were right, the mist was inhospitable and now their mountain village was too, there was nowhere on Solaero for them to go but Aeoran felt this was the right choice, in his heart he knew there was somewhere for his people to flee. Elia stepped up to stand beside her son.

"I know where we can go, where there are no beasts and we'll have shelter and a place to live, somewhere we can forge ourselves in to warriors capable of destroying Aeoror"

"Where?" Aeoran questioned along with many others in the crowd

"Old Solra" she revealed to the surprise of everyone

_There_

The crowd erupted in complaints about how cursed the old city is and that it was swarming with beasts. Aeoran had always heard of the city in stories but he had never been there himself, despite that he knew that it was where they needed to go, even if the stories about it being swarmed with beasts were true he knew in his gut that there was a place for them there.

"Where is this place in the cursed city that we can survive?" a man angrily demanded

"The great temple to Aeoran" Elia looked up at her son before she continued

They never managed to tell Aeoran about his origins after his father had been injured, they never found the right time to explain it to him but now was as good as any. She had to reveal the secret the original people of Aldra had kept even from the other villages.

"All who grew up in Aldra will know that my husband managed to journey to Old Solra but most don't know the full story" Elia steeled herself as she prepared to share the entirety of her late husband's journey to the cursed city of mist, "Aeoran you should have figured out by now that I never gave birth to you but despite that you're my son"

She told the story of Aldean's expedition in to Old Solra and what exactly he found there, the great temple to Aeoran untouched by the beasts and a possible sanctuary for them if they can reach it. Aeoran listened closely to the truth of his birth and the more he heard the more he was sure that his future and the future of his people lay in Old Solra.

"No matter where I came from you're my mother" Aeoran smiled down at her before turning back to the crowd, "And she's right, Old Solra is the only place for us now, we'll hide in the mist and foster our fury until it's a burning blade we can use to strike down Aeoror"

The crowd was silent, they had little hope in their future and little hope in surviving in the mist or Old Solra. Alrean limped up to stand with his friend, bloody and weak but still standing strong.

He looked Aeoran in the eyes and the fire in them burned brighter than even the primarch's, "Whatever it takes to destroy those bastards"

"Yes" Aeoran nodded as he drew on all the power he had as a primarch, "SO WILL YOU JUST LAY DOWN AND DIE!"

He demanded the attention of all of them as he delivered a speech that filled every man, woman and child with the same fire he saw in Alrean. He demanded dedication, fury and sacrifice from his people but in exchange he promised them victory and vengeance for their dead. By the end of it all in Aldra were determined to brave the mist and the cursed city so they could see their vengeance fulfilled.

"Gather all the food, weapons, livestock and whatever else can be carried, spoil the water and the land" he ordered, "We leave at sunrise tomorrow"

* * *

Next time: King of the cursed city


	8. King of the cursed city

8\. King of the cursed city

The people of Aldra spent a day and a night gathering all their livestock, food stores and anything else that could be carried, they salted the earth on their peak and sabotaged the stream that came down the mountain to make sure no one could inhabit it after them and they wouldn't consider coming back. Everyone gathered, just over 4,000 men, women and children, all wrapped up and bearing something from their home, this would be a difficult journey and many would not survive to reach their goal. Aeoran looked at each of them individually and committed their faces to his memory, he had his doubts but his gut feeling and the whisper in the back of his mind assured him he was making the right decision. Alrean was strapped to the primarch's back while his mother bore the full weight of his father's pack, she gave her son a reassuring smile while Alrean pat the primarch on his back as they turned towards the path in to the mist. Aeoran took a deep breath and started down the path.

The journey to Old Solra was hard, just as hard as was expected, many of them succumbed to the dangers of the mist and what the survivors saw there would haunt them for the rest of their lives but Aeoran fought with all his fury to make sure that no one died needlessly. The trek in to the city was the hardest part, beasts attacked them at every turn but not once did they faulter and soon they reached the city centre.

Aeoran had killed more beasts in the last hour than he had in his entire life but the sight of the great temple invigorated him and everyone else as the primarch cut a path through the horde of beasts so his people could flee in to the safety of the temple. He held them back as the last of his people made it to the steps and as he too back up the temple steps he noticed that the beasts slinked away, almost like an invisible barrier forced them back. Aeoran ascended the steps and looked out to see all the beasts steering clear of the temple, his mother was right, they would be safe here.

Of the original 4,000 that started the journey only just under 3,000 remained and they had to abandon many other things along the way. The people of Aldra finally relaxed for the first time in days as they swept the bones of the dead out of the way, built small fires to light the temple and settled in to finally get a good night's rest. Aeoran walked through the broken doors of the temple and looked at his weary people finally resting, he searched for his mother and soon found her at the back of the temple in front of a shrine to Aeoran but she wasn't focused on the shrine. Resting in a gouge cut in the temple floor was a metal pod, it had not rusted with age and looked much the same as it did when first found.

"This is where you came from" Elia said as she felt her son approach, "Your father said you fell from the sky"

"So those doors are your fault?" Alrean asked, leaning over Aeoran's shoulder to see the capsule

Aeoran looked at the pod transfixed, it was strange to see the object of his birth and it made him question his purpose here, who had sent him and why? Why to this planet and why make him land here? He saw the II etched in to the pod, he wondered if he was the second the who was the first and where were they? Where they on Solaero as well, waiting for him to find him, was there a third or fourth or even fifth.

As Aeoran thought about that a memory surfaced of a time before he came to Solaero and he remembered seeing the essences of his brothers. He remembered the turbulent sea and a whisper in his ear, the first time he ever heard his instincts and foresight manifest. The pushed the thoughts of his past away and focused back on his mother.

"This thing might have given birth to me but you're my mother" Aeoran put a hand on his mother's shoulder and led her away from the pod

The people of Aldra took advantage of their safety and made up for the sleep lost during their trek. After a day everyone was gathered, the temple provided shelter but they could not live here forever, there was no grazing land for their remaining livestock or land to grow food, they needed to take back the city but fighting all the beasts out there was not possible even if they had 10 times their number.

"What now?" some demanded to know from their leader, "Have we come here just join these bones?"

Aeoran didn't know what to do; they couldn't make a life in the temple, they couldn't take back the city and they certainly couldn't return to their village, Aeoran knew they were supposed to be here and they could survive but the question was how. They debated for hours but nothing came of it, they were stuck here and there was nothing anyone could do. They had about a month or two of rationed food and they could start slaughtering their animals but they would succumb to starvation soon enough.

Aeoran sat at the back of the temple staring at the pod that had birthed him, he ran his hand over it as memories of a cold turbulent ocean surfaced and he was reminded of his time before Solaero. His mind was troubled with the problems of his people and he didn't have the time to deal with such things, it had been a week and they managed to gather more food by sending out hunting parties but the beasts were making it difficult. The primarch hadn't actually slept since the betrayal and he was starting to feel weary, his subconscious whispering at him to lay his head down and rest.

_Sleep_

_Rest your head right here_

A voice whispered in to his ear and Aeoran listened, as he often did to the voice. For the first time in close to a month Aeoran put his head to the ground and closed his eyes but as he was drifting off he felt something, there was a low rumbling in the ground, so low that his enhanced hearing only picked it up after putting his ear to the ground, there was something beneath the temple.

_Behind the shrine_

Aeoran jumped up, his gut feeling guiding him, as he ran behind the shrine to the legendary mist king. He moved his hand over the wall until he felt something, he pressed it and the floor in front of him fell away in to spiral stairs leading down in to the dark. He didn't wait and descended; the staircase went down at least 15 feet until it exited in to a large cave like room.

The room was empty except for a black monolith surrounded by the bones of multiple people, there were weapons scattered around and it looked like the people were fighting. Aeoran moved amongst the bones, many of them still wearing tattered armour or holding down the last man they were able to kill before their own death. The armour was faded and rotted by Aeoran could clearly see two distinct styles with two symbols, one being the axe of Aeoran, the heraldry of Old Solra, and the other being the severed head of Fen, the heraldry of Aeoror.

Aeoran moved around the monolith to see two skeletons hunched over a console, a Solran and an Aeororan, the last two men fighting over control of the monolith. He quickly swept them aside and looked down at the console, dust covered but still working after all these millennia, there were many dials and buttons along with screens showing a slowly rolling stream of data, it was obvious to the primarch what this was and what had happened here, what had caused the fall of Old Solra. The monolith somehow warded off the beasts and Aeoror had sabotaged it to begin their rise to power.

The primarch studied the console for a few minutes as he tried to determine the exact workings of it, he soon resolved to let his instinct guide him. Placing a hand on one of the dials he slowly turned and watched the data flowing across the screen change, as he continued to turn, he could hear the sound of some kind of disturbance make its way down the staircase. Aeoran pushed the dial to its limit and ran back up the stairs and in to the temple, only to find it empty.

Aeoran ran outside to find the sky clear and the people of Aldra walking around the central plaza just outside the temple. Some of the children sitting on the temple steps were the first to notice the mist thinning and the beasts retreating from the temple in fear and soon the news of the beast's miraculous exodus spread as the survivors rushed out to witness the beasts fleeing in terror. The retreating pained cries of the beasts could still be heard as the Aldrans looked around at the city, free of beasts and mist and ripe for the taking.

Aeoran wasted no time and he soon determined that the beasts had fled from the city completely, inside the walls and the surrounding area was completely devoid of the predators, once the safety of the city was established he got the people to work; breaking down the ruined houses for building material, digging up the ground for farm and grazing land and collecting any weapons left in the city. They worked tirelessly for months until the city was finally able to sustain their population but Aeoran wasn't going to stop there; he would reverse engineer the lost technology of Old Solra, he would find all that had been lost in the fall and rebuild out of the ruins. Radial had told him that he was destined to rule Solaero and that's why the King had marked him for death, Aeoran had never thought about becoming king of anywhere but with all that had happened the primarch could now see the path of his fate laid out before him, he would raze Aeoror and rule his world from its rightful capital much like his namesake.

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN GONE!" King Radiel screamed down from his throne, "FIRST I HEAR AEORAN SOMEHOW SURVIVED AND NOW YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE HE IS!"

A man kneeled before the king, wearing armour that barely contained his powerful muscles and keeping his head bowed, "Your majesty, the second wave sent reports that the entire peak was empty, no one to be found and anything of value was gone"

Radiel sighed as he looked down at, Kasrean, the commander of his armies, he had wanted to be rid of the threat of Aeoran and when word reached him that the primarch had survived he scrambled to send a force to raze the village and destroy the potential rival but they had been slaughtered and only half his balloons had returned. Radiel gnawed on his nails, Aeoran posed no threat now but his ability to accumulate power was too great and he needed to be found now.

"Where could they have gone?" the king asked

"Our men interrogated the people of the neighbouring peaks but no one from Aldra came through, there is only one possibility"

Radiel knew what Kasrean was suggesting but it was impossible, no one would do such a thing, "Aeoran is no fool, he wouldn't"

"It is the only explanation your majesty, Aeoran and his people have descended to brave the mists and seek survival there"

Radiel's panic spiked at the theory being vocalised, he didn't know why, grown and trained men can't survive in the mist for long so a village filled with women, children and the elderly stood no chance but still Radiel felt a sense of dread.

"Keep the knowledge of this secret, burn down their village and circulate the story of their utter defeat" the king quickly came up with a cover story, "Spread a rumour to the guild of mist walkers about a new beast, one that looks human but isn't, let them kill any of those villagers they find in the mist"

* * *

Aeoran sat on the shattered head of Fen, from the statue of Aeoran and the great beast battling, as he oversaw the children and elderly sorting through the scavenged weapons, the adults were hauling around building materials or building houses for their flourishing community, everyone had moved out of the temple and built homes and workshops for themselves. The primarch had chosen to keep his discovery under the temple a secret; only telling his mother, Aslia, and Alrean, it was not something everyone should know about, at least not yet.

The primarch looked up at the palace that rose up from the heart of the city and loomed over them looking like the mountains they used to call home, with great stone towers that, much like the great temple, seemed to be made of one solid block and high walls whose beauty remained undimmed by time. No one had wandered near the palace, focusing instead on securing food, water and shelter, but Aeoran always found himself staring at the palace.

_Go_

_Go now_

The voice that had always guided him told him that he needed to go to the palace but he needed to focus on his people right now, whatever was in the palace could come later.

"You wanna go?" Alrean limped up behind Aeoran

The mist walker had mostly recovered from his injuries but he still wasn't in fighting shape, he had acted as Aeoran's right hand and helped with planning out the settlement they built. It was obvious he had become restless sitting around all day and wanted to go on an adventure and Aeoran was starting to feel the same way.

Aeoran looked back at his friend, "You sure you're up for it?"

"If I'm up for it with my wife, I'm up for this"

"I don't need to hear about that" Aeoran chuckled

"You need to at least do it"

Aeoran had never really been one for girls, although most of the women he met did feel like that about him, he didn't feel that way about them or anyone really. He put it down to how far apart he was from the average human, or even the most extraordinary human, he was too far above them that is was hard to make friends let alone form a romantic connection.

"I have more important things to focus on" Aeoran finally stood and looked down at his one true friend, "Get some men together, no reason we can't have a little fun"

Alrean gathered a group of 10 other men and armed them all. The primarch led them through a small maze of back alleys, following his instincts, and they soon found themselves in front of the great gates of the palace.

The great palace of Solra looked as if it had once been a mountain that had been carved in to the great fortress. The unblemished walls were carved with images of Aeoran leading men in to battle against the beasts, of him overseeing the building of the city and of him battling the great beast, Fen. Either side of the great gateway two great statues kneeled with their spears laid in front of them, forming a causeway, and their heads bowed. The golden gates still stood and were wide open, welcoming them in.

The gate led in to a spacious courtyard, littered with the bones of men and beasts alike with weapons and armour scattered around, standing tall and guarding the entrance to the palace proper was a statue of the legendary Aeoran holding his axe aloft. The men moved around the bones as they entered the palace. The inside of the great palace was lavishly decorated with paintings of the great kings of Solra and legendary mist walkers battling beasts, statues depicting famous sense from well-known stories and intricately woven tapestries and rugs, although all these things had long since rotted and their beauty had faded. The one thing that hadn't been diminished by time was the lighting of the palace, it was lit using electrical lights and whatever powered them still seemed to be running after these millennia, even the largest cities limited their use of electricity since it wasn't easily made on the mountains and most villages had to do without it.

"How are these still working?" one of the men asked as they passed through the palace

"I don't know but we should find whatever is supplying them" Aeoran made a mental note

While the art in the palace had rotten and fallen apart, the palace itself was in surprisingly good condition. The group moved through the palace swiftly, looking in to every room only to find the long dead skeletons of those in the palace during the fall. They were soon faced with two massive stone doors that had two guards with their spears crossed etched on it, using his super human strength to push the great doors open Aeoran and his men entered. Inside was a great hall with a vaulted ceiling and walls lined with great windows and tattered banners, displaying the axe of Aeoran, between them. The windows were smashed and the hall was littered with the skeletons of soldiers and beasts alike. At the very end of the hall a skeleton sat on a great throne, big enough for even the primarch, it was dressed in ornate golden armour with a clear puncture in the chest, on its head was a silver crown that had swirls of steel framing many of the encrusted jewels and across its lap was a mighty battle axe that seemed to glow with some subdued power.

The men approached the golden throne and looked at the skeleton raised above them in awe, it was the last king of Solra, the last of Aeoran's blood, King Oeran.

_Ascend _

They just looked at him for a few minutes before Aeoran began to climb the steps, his instincts whispering to him to ascend, it was the right thing to do he felt it. Aeoran reached the top of the steps and looked down at the bleach white bones of the last king, he hesitated slightly as he reached for the body. Suddenly a blue light fell from above and a man appeared before the primarch, a hologram.

The hologram was obviously the king, he was wearing the same armour and held the axe, the hologram wasn't aware of Aeorn's presence, it was just a record, "I'll assume a person activated this recording and not some animal, I am King Oeran the last king of Solra" he sighed as the screams and sounds of battle could be heard drawing closer, "We were betrayed by those damn Aeororans, if you've reached this far in to the city then you can reach the temple underneath it is the black stone ward, it will banish the beasts from the city"

Oeran's head snapped to the side as the sound of smashing glass could be heard along with screams and gun fire, "I have more to tell you but no time, take the city as your prize but please, so our souls can rest, destroy those damn traitors" a Needle tail spine lodged itself in Oeran's breast plate, he ripped it out and hefted his axe, marching in to battle.

The recording ended and the light shut off leaving Aeoran to stare at the bones of the long dead king, the city was his now no matter what the last king said but now he had a symbol of his authority.

_Take it_

_Take it and crown yourself_

Aeoran reached down to the last King's lap, the axe seemed to come alive as he grabbed it, the subtle glow of the blade now pulsing with renewed power, the primarch hefted the mighty weapon up and got a good look at it. The axe was large enough for him to wield two handed, it was forged out of a material that Aeoran couldn't identify and the edges of the two axe blades pulsed with veins of power, it was obviously designed to replicate the Axe of Aeoran or maybe it was the actual axe of the legendary king, there were stories about mist walkers questing for the axe and the king, it didn't matter to the primarch with this weapon he would raze Aeoror to the ground, not just to avenge his people but now the people of Old Slora.

* * *

Next time: Reclaim what was lost


	9. Reclaim what was lost

9\. Reclaim what was lost

Aeoran returned from the palace holding the axe high, climbing the steps of the temple as his people gathered around him, he stopped next to the shattered head of Fen and turned to address them. The people marvelled at the great axe as it seemed to give the primarch an even greater aura of power, all eyes were on him as he prepared to speak.

"The fate of Solra has been revealed to me" Aeoran looked down at the crowd, this was something they needed to hear, "We are here because Aeoror betrayed us and slaughtered our family while calling us guests but this is not the first betrayal of that cursed city, they came to Solra as friends and allies and in the same instant orchestrated it's fall to the mist, their history is nothing but lies and betrayal and we will avenge not just our own but the dead of Solra as well"

The crowd was riled up and would probably do anything he asked, it was what Aeoran needed, there was something he had to do before he could destroy Aeoror or unify his world, he needed to rid himself of his guilt.

"We will have our vengeance soon enough but for now we must be satisfied with a small act" Aeoran paused for a moment, "I will return to the body pit of Aeoror and I will recover the bodies of the 30 who were murdered, 100 of the best men will gather the best arms and armour in the city and follow me" he declared to a roaring crowd who realised this was the first step in their journey to revenge

The old people of Solra had used weapons and armour that was far more advanced than anything even Aeoror possessed, their armour was made of a material that stopped bullets dead without harming the wearer and they had weapons capable of reducing an armoured man to ash. They had only gathered a small portion of the armour and arms left in the city but the children and elderly had sorted them in to those that could be used and those that were too far gone, Aeoran planned to study the ones that were beyond repair, but for now his warriors gathered up their best weapons.

Aeoran went without any armour, since all of it was built for human proportions, and only carried his newly acquired axe. He walked amongst his men as they geared up for the mission, the primarch soon noticed one man struggling to put on his armoured carapace.

"I'm not sure you should come" Aeoran walked up behind his friend

Alrean turned to look up at the primarch, "Did you think I would stay?"

"I was hoping Aslia would force you to stay"

"No one could, not even you"

Aeoran looked down at his friend with pleading eyes as he placed a giant hand on his shoulder, "I need someone I can trust to keep our people safe if something happens"

"If something happens to you then we have no hope besides I need to bring them back, you know why"

Aeoran sighed, his friend was right, Alrean would come along no matter what was said to him, even if he was certain to die, he would still come, "Fine but Aslia can't blame me if you die" the primarch smiled as he helped his friend in to his armour

Alrean laughed, "She probably will anyway"

The small army was seen off by all the people of Solra, it was only a few days trek from Solra to the base of Aeoror but since expelling the beasts from the city the trek had become 100 times more dangerous. Aeoran marched at the front of the column with Alrean by his side as they all kept an eye out for the beasts that fled the city.

Aeoran turned the axe in his hand as he felt its power pulse through his body and the veins of power running through the blade pulsed with his heart beat. He swung and twirled the axe, testing its weight and power, finding it was easy for him to wield, the perfect weight distributed so he could swing it with inhuman speed and deliver devastating strikes.

As Aeoran was focused on his weapon, his instincts screamed at him and a second later the eerie silence of the mist was shattered by a deep and terrifying roar. A fist the size of a man flew out of the mist and sent one of the men flying out of sight. A hairy beast, taller than the primarch and covered with muscles that threatened to burst out of its skin, roared revealing razor sharp teeth as big as a man's arm. The Gorath swatted another man aside and the sound of all his bones turning to dust was clear to all as the group scattered and fired at the beast, it stumbled back as their weapons cut deep wounds in to it. As the beast was off balance Aeoran took the initiative and charged.

_Let your power flow_

Aeoran focused his anger and rage in to the axe's blade and swung with might only a primarch could muster, he was still a few feet away from the beast but the axe produced a blade of pure energy that sliced through the beast like it was air, cutting the Gorath in half.

Aeoran breathed heavily as he felt the axe drawing the power out of his body, letting it flow in to the weapon, he closed his eyes an took a few deep breaths as he pulled the energy back in to himself. The men gathered at a distance from the thrashing torso of the Gorath, it was still alive, flailing and screaming as it tried to smash the men just out of it's reach, it was eventually Alrean who walked up and put a single shot in to the beast's head.

Kasadiel was an aging man but he could still fight as good as any young man, he had descended the peak at least five times although a Needle tail spine to his hip had ended his career but he still served his fellow mist walkers by leading the guild of mist walkers in Aeoror.

In the villages and some small towns being a mist walker was a duty most men had to undertake but in the larger towns and cities it was a job, the mist walkers would descend not to primarily find food but to scavenge for lost tech they could sell and maybe hunt for exotic meats that couldn't be found on the peak.

Kasadiel ran a hand through his greying and thinning hair as he read a report submitted by a group that had recently returned from the mist, there has been a sudden increase in the number and deadliness of the beasts near Aeoror and it could soon become impossible for anyone to leave the peak.

"What do you think should be done?" Kasadiel's young assistant, Samiel, watched the old man rub his eyes

"I don't know, I think this is the Gods' punishing us for what that dumbass King did"

"His majesty has spies everywhere, don't say things like that"

Kasadiel looked at the empty room they sat in, "Unless you're one then I think I'm safe and what he did was stupid, killing such a venerable mist walker"

"He did try to assassinate the king"

"You believe that"

The official story of what happened was that Aeoran and his party attempted to assassinate the king and take control of Aeoror but they were stopped and killed and their village was razed but anyone with half a brain knew that it was a lie and the King just wanted to be rid of a potential rival. Those who had figured out the truth, like most of the mist walkers, were up in arms about it but they could do little against their king.

Samiel's ear picked up the sound of the door before Kasadiel looked up to see it open and several robed figures glided in, their long robes making it look like they were floating. The two looked at the group like they had just suddenly popped out of the floor, it was strange for them to be here and their presence couldn't mean anything good.

"Master of the mist walkers we require your help" they all spoke at the same time, the voices of men and women, young and old came together to create an unnatural voice

The robed figures were the mist seers those chosen by the god of the mist to have the vision to see beyond the veil of time that obscures the future and to interpret his will. They usually remained in their fortress, hanging off the side of the mountain slightly above the mist, only coming out in small groups to claim those that they have seen to have the mist sight. The mist seers were used by the King to divine the future and guide his decisions, to lead Aeoror to greatness.

"Venerable mist seers" Kasadiel bowed his head to the group, "It is quite strange for you to leave your fortress in such force, what has forced this and why are you seeking the help of us mist walkers?"

"The great god of the mists has shown us the path, it leads us away from Aeoror and down in to his holy domain but we will require protection"

Kasadiel quickly figured out what they meant, "You want to go in to the mist?" he gave them a look that said he was concerned for their sanity, "The mists are dangerous at the best of times and now they are deadly even to trained men, surely you must have seen that"

"We have divined that but our god has also shown us that now is the only chance we may get to serve his design and his chosen king"

"His chosen king?" Kasadiel asked

The mist seers turned their heads in unison, looking at Samiel standing next to him, it was clear what they wanted, Samiel would no longer be permitted to sit in on this meeting. Kasadiel sent his assistant away and asked again.

"The chosen king of Solra and soon of all Solaero, the chosen of the mists and of our god, his champion, Aeoran" Kasadiel's eyes widened at the revelation

"Aeoran lives!" the veteran mist walker was elated at the news of his hero's survival and most mist walkers would feel the same

"Yes and we must descend soon or he will go in to the mists, not to be seen until he brings fire and death to this forsaken city"

It was difficult for anyone to refuse the request of a mist seer, they were the voice of a god after all, but it was impossible to refuse a request to take them to the greatest mist walker on the planet, "How many in your order?"

"30 of those who follow our god over our king, the rest are now judged in the mists" the group turned in one swift uniform motion, "Gather your men and make your way to our fortress, all those who wish to serve the god of the mists and his chosen are welcome, you have two days"

The seers glided out of the room without another word.

Aeoran and his men continued through the mist for a few more days, sporadically encountering beasts, and soon reached the last leg of their journey. The group marched through a mist shrouded valley that would lead them right to the base of Aeoror, they had lost few men to the beasts and weren't expecting to lose anymore but as they walked through the thick fog the more observant mist walkers noticed they were being stalked.

"How many?" Alrean asked Aeoran

"At least 10" Aeoran looked out in to the mist as he listened for the beasts stalking them, "Only one beast acts like this"

"I know" Alrean fired off in to the mist and the yelp of one of their stalkers was heard as the beasts that surrounded them leapt out to attack

Fensons, wolf like beasts, made in the image of the great beast itself, that stood taller than a man with a silver coat that was impervious to most weapons, they were ferocious pack hunters that have decimated whole expeditions, highly intelligent and wielding razor-sharp claws. They were some of the deadliest beasts in the mist.

The men were ready for the attack, forming a defensive circle, they all fired outwards, the overlapping fields of fire ripping the beasts to shreds, none managed to get close to the group as they fired a second volley and completely destroyed the pack.

"That was easy" one of the men commented as he shouldered his rifle

_It's not over_

"It's not over" Aeoran sensed another predator circling them, larger and more ferocious, the alpha of the pack

The primarch hefted his axe as he tracked the unseen beast through the mist, his frightened men not able to sense it as he could. It came as a silver blur and snatched up two men in its jaws, their lives ending before they could even scream, the men drew closer together as they desperately searched for the beast.

_Behind you_

Aeoran turned on his heel as he summoned the power of the axe and threw a blade of energy behind him, blocking the beast's second charge. The alpha Fenson was massive, twice as big as the primarch, and radiating blood lust, its red eyes locked with Aeoran as its lips curled back to reveal gore stained teeth that were as big as a child.

Aeoran met the beast's challenge and charged at it, bring his axe down to cut at its shoulder, the beast moved with unnatural speed as it dodged and swiped its massive claw to knock off the primarch's head but Aeoran was faster, ducking and quickly spinning to cut deep in to the beasts other leg. The alpha howled as it retreated from Aeoran, the primarch followed, swinging at the beast as it moved back to avoid death, it was soon driven to the valley wall and just barely dodged anther axe strike. It moved back as Aeoran threw his axe in to the valley wall, lodging the blade in the rock, sensing an opportunity the alpha lunged forward, jaws wide to clamp down on Aeoran's throat, but it was a faint. The force of Aeoran's axe strike had loosed some rocks overhead and as the Fenson lunged forward the rocks landed and pinned the beast. The alpha beast thrashed and howled as it tried to free itself, Aeoran stood over it and raised his axe high, bringing down his blade to cut through the alpha's exposed neck.

Aeoran strapped the beast's head to his back and the group continued on to Aeoror. It took them only a few more hours before they reached the body pit of the great city.

Aeoran was taken back to the moment he woke in the pit, the pain and rage and defeat he felt at seeing his comrades and family dead, he felt all those emotions rush back as he gripped his axe, threatening to snap it in two if it was made of a lesser metal, his eyes turned to the sky and he thought of the fat king that caused all this.

"Calm down" Alrean placed a hand on the primarch's arm and calmed him, "Let's just get our dead"

Aeoran calmed himself and lead his men to where he had woken up.

The bodies of their friends were rotted but still recognisable, they got to work finding all of them and then carefully wrapping their bodies up to be taken back to Solra. Aeoran watched as his father was carefully lifted onto the cloth to be wrapped, his skin like melted candle wax and his bones and musculature showing through in a few places. The primarch pushed the other men away without a word as he fell to his knees and started wrapping his father's body, holding back tears as he finished.

"I'll carry him" was all he said

_Take what is yours_

Aeoran's eyes were drawn back to the city looming above them as he felt his rage rising.

_Climb up_

"Don't wait for me"

Alrean moved to stop his friend but he was too slow, the primarch jumped up the cliff face and quickly climbed it, heading for Aeoror.

The primarch scaled the mountain quickly, reaching the walls, he kept to the shadows as much as he could and jumped to the top in a single leap, the man patrolling the top of the walls was surprised at the sudden appearance of Aeoran but before he even had time to process what was happening he was flung over the side of the mountain. Aeoran moved as swiftly as he could, keeping to the shadows of buildings and only walking through abandoned back alleys. He made it all the way to the palace without being seen and it took little effort for him to climb over the walls. The primarch entered through the servant's quarters, which were abandoned during the day, and used the rafters to navigate the palace proper, avoiding the regular guard patrols.

Aeoran moved through the shadows over everyone's heads, using his instincts to guide him to his goal.

_Here_

Aeoran stopped and looked down to see two men standing guard outside an innocuous door, he guessed that is probably where that fat king was at the moment. The rest of the hall was empty except for the guards so the primarch simply dropped between them and quickly crushed their heads. Aeoran opened the door but instead of Radiel he found a room full of weapons, he had found the palace's armoury.

_He will not die today_

He quickly figured out why his instincts had led him here, he located mist cutter and the other weapons stolen in the betrayal, he figured that Radiel would have to wait to die but that didn't mean he couldn't send a message. Aeoran gathered the stolen weapons and grabbed a double-sided axe, it seemed small in his massive hands but it was designed to look like the axe of Aeoran and would work perfectly for what he wanted to do.

Aeoran climbed back in to the rafters and moved as quickly as he could, using his instincts to guide his way, he soon found himself looking down on the palace's throne room. The empty throne was surrounded by a handful of guards that were barely paying attention, the primarch swiftly jumped down and dispatched the guards with little effort.

With the throne room empty now Aeoran ascended to the throne, he planted the severed head of the alpha Fenson on its seat and raised the axe he took from the armoury with one clean strike he planted the blade between the dead beast's eyes. Aeoran left the message on the throne along with the dead guards, the symbol of Aeoror being split open by the symbol of Solra.

"We shouldn't be doing this" Samiel complained as he walked with Kasadiel

"If you're afraid then go back but I'm doing this"

Behind the two was a small army made up of Aeoror's most experienced mist walkers, Kasadiel had told those he trusted of Aeoran's survival and what the mist seers were planning and they had told more people, now most of the mist walkers in Aeoror were following him and those that weren't hadn't heard the call. The stories of Aeoran's battles against the beasts had inspired many to descend and many more saw him as the true successor to the great king and Radiel's murder of him had been unpopular.

The entrance to the mist seers' fortress was on the far side of the city from the mist walkers' guild hall, so they had agreed to gather closer to the fortress to avoid looking suspicious or being easily apprehended. The people gave them surprised and concerned looks as hundreds of mist walkers, armed and fully geared, crossed the square that led to the mist seers' fortress. Whispers and gossip soon started flying as the people tried to figure out why so many mist walkers were gathered, accusations of a coup or of the two venerable orders falling out and engaging in hostilities were inevitably brough up.

Kasadiel and his mist walkers stopped at the other side of the square, right before the wide avenue that would lead them to the entrance of the mist seers' fortress. Standing in their way was Kasrean and a number of armed men.

"Turn back guild master and all will be forgotten" the commander gave his simple ultimatum

"You know I can't" Kasadiel pointed his Needle tail spine tipped spear at the man, "Move aside commander, I don't want to hurt you"

"This is treason Kasadiel, the seers will be dealt with but you can be spared"

"We both know the king won't let me live" Kasadiel gripped his spear and shifted in to an aggressive stance as the other mist walkers readied their own weapons

"Fine" Kasrean drew his sword

The common people fled as the two sides clashed. The common soldier of Aeoror was well trained but most were either no match for mist walkers, who had refined their skills and reflexes in the most dangerous places on their world, or they were retired mist walker who, while skilled, were well past their prime.

Kasadiel thrust as Kasrean parried his spear and closed the distance. Kasrean was a skilled fighter and the two had traversed the mists together before he decided to join the city militia. Kasrean was just as skilled as Kasadiel and he didn't have an injury holding him back like the guild master, this would not be easy.

Kasrean quickly moved past the tip of Kasadiel's spear and thrush his blade at the mist walker's throat, forcing him back but the commander pressed his attack and sought to keep Kasadiel off balance and on the run. He thrust and slashed as Kasadiel tried his best to block and dodge but it was clear who the better fighter was, Kasadiel felt his old injury flare up and his leg failed him, he fell back on to the ground with Kasrean standing over him.

"It's over" the commander pointed his blade at Kasadiel's chest, "You'll die for your treason"

He drew back his blade and prepared to deliver the final strike but as he was about to bring his sword down the tip of a spear burst through his stomach. Kasrean looked surprised as his sword fell from his grasp and he dropped to his knees, attempting to hold his innards in, Kasadiel looked up to see his saviour.

Samiel stepped over the crumpled body of Kasrean as he helped his master to his feet, "I though you didn't like this"

"That king doesn't deserve our loyalty but you do"

The mist walkers had effectively dispatched the city guard with only light casualties and now the way to the mist seers and to Aeoran was clear.

Aeoran climbed back down in to the body pit to find his men still there, waiting for him, he had been gone at least 3 hours but they had waited for him. As Aeoran dropped on to the morbid surface of the pit Alrean was already heading for him, his displeasure obvious.

"WHAT THE NAME OF THE MISTS WAS THAT?"

"It was something I had to do" Aeoran tried to explain but his friend wasn't hearing it

"Did you at least kill that bastard king?" Alrean sighed as he tried to calm down

"No, he wasn't meant to die today, I only sent him a message" Aeoran saw the annoyance in Alrean at learning Radiel was still alive, "One I'm sure will keep him up at night"

"What ever let's just get back"

"Yeah" Aeoran knelt to pick up his father's body when his ears picked up the sound of footsteps, "Someone's coming"

The primarch's men readied their weapons as they prepared for an attack. It sounded like a great many people, more than they brough to the pit, and some of them were chanting under their breath but the primarch couldn't quite make out what they were saying.

The next few minutes were tense as the primarch tried to figure out who they were, the city militia wouldn't climb down the mountain and mist walkers aren't likely to come anywhere near a body pit so who ever was approaching they were likely here for Aeoran and his men. the regular men could hear them now and they kept their weapons trained on the direction the sound was coming from, a few seconds passed before their shadows could be seen in the mist.

"HALT!" Aeoran used his powerful voice to stop the mysterious group in their tracks, and stop their low chanting, "Who are you?"

"We seek the king" several of them spoke as one, "The chosen of our god"

"And who is that?"

"You are" the group quickly chanted in an ancient and mysterious language and before them the mist cleared, allowing the two groups to see each other clearly

It was a group of about 30 hooded figures surrounded by a hundred some mist walkers, the robed people stepped forward and dropped to their knees before Aeoran.

"Hail Aeoran" they said in unison, "King of Solra, King of Solaero, chosen of our god the keeper of secrets and master of the mists, Tzen"

* * *

Next time: The dark ships of Krake


	10. Dark ships of Krake

10\. Dark ships of Krake

Urst Arlson was quite a young man but despite that he had risen quite far in the ranks, although that can't be put down entirely to him or his skill. He currently oversaw the heavy cruiser, _Wave breaker_, as part of a patrol detachment of a much larger fleet, his ship was accompanied by 4 destroyers that were currently somewhere beyond the horizon. The fleet his ships were attached to were tasked with patrolling the furthest extremes of the pirate lords' Atris and Asla's territory and his detachment had been tasked with patrolling the waters around the furthest flung islands the pirates controlled. They were about two days sail from the small cluster of islands and they hadn't spotted anything, no rival pirates or merchant ships ripe for plunder, all was quiet on the bridge.

Urst sat in the captain's chair. It was big, much too big for him since it wasn't made for him, like a lot of the things on this particular ship. _Wave breaker _had been refitted when Urst had join its command crew, the captain's quarters and the bridge had been made much larger to accommodate the ship's captain, the man who had personally picked Urst to be his first mate, the eldest son of the pirate lord and lady and possibly the greatest military mind on their world, Ovis Nelson.

Urst was the son of one of Atris' admirals and had been friends with Ovis for years, the two had often gotten in to trouble together and Ovis had pulled Urst up the ranks with him. With nothing to do Ovis had retired to his quarters and left Urst to tend to the bridge. The second yawned as he looked off in to the empty horizon.

"Are we still on course?" he turned to the navigation officer, who checks a few maps and made some calculation

"Yes" was his unenthusiastic answer

"This is so boring" the bridge engineering officer complained, "I became a pirate for an exciting life, for the money and the women and the raiding"

"You only get one of those and it's not the money or the women" the navigation officer commented as the bridge burst in to laughter

"I wish there were some women on this ship right now" the radar officer turned in his chair, only taking quick glances at his station

"I know where you can probably find some" the communications officer joined in

"Don't even suggest it" Urst warned, "You do wanna continue to live"

"Not like this" the engineering officer laughed along with the rest of the bridge

The bridge crew continued to talk and trade jokes, laughing until suddenly the communications officer stopped dead, his face became serious as he listened in to his head set, he soon turned pale and his panic was clear, the entire bridge silently waited for him to report.

"Darist, what is it?" Urst demanded to know

Darist, the communications officer, ignored him and turned dials on his radio set up, "Destroyer _vengeance_ confirm your sighting and repeat your message"

"What is it man?" Urst only waited a few more seconds before demanding again

The communications officer listened to the repeated message, he looked the first mate in the eyes, his fear clear, "The destroyer _vengeance_ has confirmed the sighting of at least 3 dark ships"

The bridge went up in shock as everyone was struck by the news but Urst kept his composure and whipped the bridge to action, he turned to the navigation officer, "Get us on an intercept course now" he then turned back to Darist, "Contact the _Vengeance_ and tell them to shadow the dark ships and get an estimate on their classification, contact the other destroyers and get them on a heading for those ships and contact the admiral to inform her of what is going on"

Urst stood from the captain's chair and made his way out of the bridge, after a short walk he stood outside a large door that was twice his hight, he didn't waste any time and quickly knocked the door, only one man could lead them through this.

The door opened and a wall of muscle blocked the way. The primarch stood over 12-foot-tall with almost pitch black skin and long midnight black hair, apart from his hight his appearance wouldn't be out of place on Krake except for his eyes that shone like silver coins.

Ovis stood in the door way without a shirt allowing Urst to see how large and defined his muscles were, and he had seen first hand how powerful they were, the primarch was so large that he could barely see in to the captain's quarters.

"What is it?" Ovis asked, his voice deep and commanding

"The _Vengeance _has spotted 3 dark ships and we're heading on an intercept course" Urst informed

"Good" Ovis grabbed a shirt and pulled it on, he didn't have time to put on his jacket

As the primarch stepped from his quarters Urst managed to catch a glimpse of two women on his bunk but the door was quickly close and the two made for the bridge.

"You know the admiral doesn't like stowaways on her ships" Urst commented

"This is my ship so they aren't stowaways"

Ovis was a genius and a commander like no other but he could be described as hard to get along with, especially at first, he was stubborn to a fault and regularly refused to listen to his superiors, in fact to the only people capable of getting him to listen to anyone were his parents, and he seemed to have inherited his father's love of women and his mother's love of drink but his results can't be argued with and no pirate on Krake had the skill he does.

"She'll berate you for wasting your money" Urst commented as the two made their way back to the bridge

"I didn't pay them, they're the daughters of the governor of Porsain"

Porsain was the name for the islands they had left two days ago and Urst remembers seeing the appointed governor and his family seeing their ships off from the harbour, including his daughters. The first mate tried to think of how they could've got on the ship, any ship fast enough would have been spotted a mile off and where was the ship that bought them.

"They saw us off, how?"

"I swam back after sunset and picked them up, got back well before sunrise" Ovis told him nonchalantly

Urst looked at him surprised by such a feat but he soon got over it, he had learned over the years not to question what Ovis could do, he had seen him push battleships that had run aground back in to deeper water and he even saw him swim after and catch a fleeing ship, there were many reasons to question Ovis but they were all simply answered by him being Ovis.

Ovis and Urst entered the bridge and all the officers snapped to attention as Darist reported to his captain.

"Admiral Kitla has been informed and has dispatched the cruiser _Alliea_ and her escorts to aid us, _Vengeance _is still shadowing the dark ship and Captain Galason has reason to believe they are heading for Porsain, the other three destroyers are all on intercept courses"

Ovis sat in his chair as he stroked the stubble on his chin, "Those heretics want to raid Porsain, at least they were nice enough to head somewhere I was going anyway"

The dark ships of Krake were the greatest threat on the seas of the world, a threat that even the worst of enemies have a sacred duty to ally against. The people of Krake worship a pantheon of Gods based around the sea and the sky but their oldest legends tell of dark gods that once held sway over the world and its people. They toyed with the people of Krake; giving them riches only to take them away the next second, demanding the people commit sick and debaucherous actions for their entertainment, forcing them to endure painful plagues with no release or simply forcing them to spill each other's blood for no reason. But the dark gods were driven from Krake by Ortris and Zortris and the followers of the true gods had hunted and killed many of the dark god's followers but some still existed on hidden islands or wandering fleets. It was the sacred duty of every pious man to kill these heretics where ever they're found, even pirates in the middle of a battle will abandon it to hunt down a dark ship.

"What is our ETA and do we have a classification yet?"

"We're 3 hours out from our estimated intercept point and we expect the other destroyers to meet up with the _Vengeance _well before then" the navigation officer reported

Darist listened in to reports from the shadowing ship, "_Vengeance _reports one battleship sized vessel and two escort sized, they were seen flying the colours of Tinch"

There were four dark gods each with their own twisted authority but Tinch was the god of magic and tricks, a dubious master who would simultaneously support you and orchestrate your downfall. The followers of Tinch were madmen who would kidnap people to perform sick experiments on them and try to turn them to the worship of their god. They were known to invoke their god to obtain supernatural powers but at the cost of their humanity, slowly all followers of Tinch would mutate in to horrific monstrosities.

Ovis sat in the captain's chair with his eyes closed as his ship sped north towards their enemy, he considered the ships his enemy had and how they would be deployed, Tinch followers were unpredictable but they would have to deploy in a certain way if they wanted to survive, Ovis considered this and all the ways he could counter it. The primarch played the battle over in his mind before opening his eyes again.

"Radar contact!" the radar officer reported, "The _Vengeance _seems to still be shadowing, heading south-west. Contact! The _Vulis _and _Vain _are speeding in from the east"

"Where is the _Valkor_?" Ovis asked about the last of the destroyers in his detachment

"It has been cut off by the dark ships" the communication officer reported the position of the last destroyer

"No trouble" Ovis quickly readjusted his plan, "Tell them to engage at as long a range as they can, try to draw them west"

"Are the boarding parties armed?" Ovis looked over at Urst

"Yes sir"

"Then get me my sword"

It wasn't long before the radar registered the dark ships and the _Wave breaker _met up with the _Vengeance _and the other two destroyers and headed west, trailing behind the dark fleet that was now chasing the _Valkor. _Soon enough the aft ends of the dark ships appeared over the horizon. The heretical ships seemed to have noticed the ships gaining on their rear and attempted to pull around to engage but Ovis acted quickly, the _Wave break_ and her escorts fired off a torpedo barrage. The 10 torpedoes cut through the water at break neck speed, reaching their target, 4 missed as they spiralled in to the ocean and of the 6 that hit 2 failed to detonate but one of them struck one of the dark battleship's propellers and disabled it. Of the 4 torpedoes that exploded; 2 hit one of the dark frigates in the aft section and completely destroyed the ships back end, leaving it as a sitting duck as it quickly took on water, another hit the other frigate's mid-section and blew a hole in it and the last torpedo hit the battleship's mid-section but its belt armour held.

The _Wave breaker _and her escorts sped forward to close the distance, the cruiser firing her two forward 12 inch guns and the destroyers firing their 7 inch main guns, as they approached. The heretics scrambled around the dark ships' decks as water and splinters were thrown up around them. Ovis watched as the heretical battleship attempted to turn all its guns on him but its disabled propeller made it difficult to manoeuvre and only its forward turrets could get a shot, they fired one volley that over shot his closing ships and the heretics attempted to reload but a lucky shell hit one of the forward turrets, detonating the magazine and throwing it in to the air and on top of the second forward turret, many heretics were incinerated or thrown overboard and the ship was lucky not to have been ripped in half.

The dark ships were now nothing more than floating hulks, unable to move or fire; one dark frigate sat with its bow raised as the aft section took on water, the other listed to starboard as its bridge burned and the battleship floated along as its main deck burned and the remaining heretical crew attempted to get it under control. Ovis laughed as he watched the blasphemers scramble around their ships in panic and the bodies of their dead and dying floated around them.

"Launch the boarding parties" Ovis ordered as a young officer presented him a massive sabre

Ovis marched along the deck as the boarding parties chanted his name and rattled their swords and guns in anticipation of the slaughter, every one of them eager to kill the enemies of all true men of Krake. The boarding boats approached without issue, there weren't many heretics left to defend their ships and none to man the side mounted machine guns to stop them. Ovis jumped off his boat and on to the ship's deck, the heretics had managed to put together a hurried defence, hiding behind any cover to be found, they focused their fire on the primarch but to Ovis their bullets moved in slow motion and he simply dodged them or swatted them aside with his blade. The panicked heretics called out invocations to their god as they watched the pirate casually approach, from their point of view their bullets simply not reaching him and their dark magics simply failing in the face of his and his men's advance.

Ovis reached the first line and before they could call out for mercy or pray to their god the primarch bisected them, the rest of Ovis' crew had scrambled over the edge and join their captain in battle as the heretics were pushed back in to their doomed ship.

"We only seek to help, you are unclean, you can not hear to voice of the true god" A raving heretic launched himself at Ovis as his eyes glowed an unnatural colour and he spit a torrent of blue flames

Ovis didn't move as the flames washed over him, not even touching his clothes, he reached through the sorcery and grabbed the heretic by his throat, "UNCLEAN UNCLEAN, ANTITHESIS TO ALL THAT IS GREAT AND GOOD, SHROUDED AND HIDDEN, LOCKED AWAY, THE WEAVER….." the madman screamed as he thrashed in Ovis' giant hand before his neck and torso were crushed with little effort on the primarch's part

Ovis kicked the bulkhead leading in to the ship off its hinges, he squeezed his bulk through, ripping apart the interior as he forced his way in. Bullets were stopped dead by Ovis' gene enhanced skin, barely leaving bruises that would heal in a couple of minutes, as his men came up behind him and fired back. The pirates swarmed the innards of the battleship and slaughtered every heretic they found; the men, the women and the children, they were all executed.

Ovis pushed his way in to a large room in the centre of the ship. It was dark, the only light coming from glowing runes carved in to the floor, robed figures stood in a circle surrounded by the glowing letters with the bodies of several people piled in the centre as they chanted in a strange language. Ovis strode forward to destroy the taint they were obviously seeking to summon.

"Stop them!" a strangled voice came from under one of the dark hoods as the heretic pointed a twisted and gnarled hand at the pirates invading their dark sanctum

Several of the figures broke from the circle and charged the pirates, screeching as they leapt at their enemy. The pirates fired on the attacking heretics but, unlike the ordinary crewmen of the dark ship, the hooded ones didn't seem bothered by the bullets. The hooded heretics tackled the pirates and held them down as they scratched at them, screeching as if it pained them to touch those that were pious. The pinned pirates fought back, punching and kicking to be free, one of the heretic's hoods fell back and revealed his mutated features, shrunken is some places and bloated in others as horns and eyes grew from several places, it was more monster than human.

A crewman pinned under the mutant monster gritted his teeth as he prayed and called forth the protection of his gods, the heretic fell back and scratched at its ruined face as it let out a scream of pure agony, the golden protection of the gods causing it untold pain. The crewman picked up his rifle and bludgeoned the dark thing to death.

Ovis ignored the charging monsters. They fell before him without the primarch having to exert any effort, the holy protection afforded him greater than a normal mans, their mutated features seemed to burn away as they neared him and they returned to their human form for an instant before Ovis batted them out of his path. The heretics remaining in the circle hastened their chanting as something started to take shape over the body pile.

"You are too late, the death of the unclean and of the true believers will fuel his coming, the emissary of the great one shall aid us!" the hooded ones fell to their knees as limbs and some semblance of a form began to come from the ethereal haze floating in the circle

Ovis didn't waste any time, he grabbed a piece of steel that had been dislodged by the torpedo strike and threw it at the heretics, it sailed through the summoned thing but struck the summoners and crushed them under its weight. The light seemed to dim with the death of the last heretics and Ovis was about to turn and leave the half-summoned creature to fade back to whence it came, but it spoke.

"Ovis, the hidden son" its voice was a collection of a million, it sounded as if it came from the other side of a great wall and the words barely reached his ears, "Blocked from the sight of the gods and his father, untouched, unlike your brothers"

Ovis turned to look at the shimmering thing, "DO NOT SPEAK OF MY BROTHER!" Ovis was before the thing in an instant, his anger radiating as he sought a way to destroy this thing, "I will expel you and your gods from this world"

"We already are expelled" the thing reached forward to touch Ovis but its unformed hand seemed to burn away before it could reach him, "You rejected the gods wholly, will you do it again? Will fate play out or will you choose a different thread, will your will remain unbreakable" the thing faded and the room grew dark as the fighting drew to an end

Ovis turned and walked out of the dark ship, moving back to his own as quickly as he could and putting his encounter with the summoned thing from his mind as he put his men to work.

Ovis and his crew were in the middle of tying lines to the dark ships when ships were spotted coming over the horizon from the north-east, it was the cruiser _Alliea _and her escorts coming to aid them in their fight against the dark ships. The _Alliea _dropped anchor alongside the _Wave breaker _and a bridge was placed between the two ships.

The captain of the _Alliea _was Commodore Latris Aldy, a middle-aged man who, in his own opinion, was aging much too quickly and should retire from piracy although he never took any steps to. Latris limped across the bridge supported by finely crafted wooden cane, he had lost his left leg nearly 20 years before when a shell hit the deck of a ship he was manning and he had been thrown off it without his leg.

"Ovis!" Latris smiled as the primarch greeted him on the _Wave breaker_ wearing the jacket that identified him as the commanding officer of the ship, "Look at you, a giant of a man, you could walk the oceans of Krake without getting your chin wet"

He laughed and slapped Ovis on his arm as he looked up at him, "Commodore Aldy, I did consider leaving you some heretics but I just couldn't help myself"

"Yes" the aging pirate looked at the barely floating dark ships, "Seems like your ships got away unscathed"

"Not a single shell hit us" Ovis walked with Latris along the deck of his ship, "I suppose the admiral wants you to take over our duties while we take these things off to be disposed of"

"I actually talked to her and convinced the old hag to relive you of duty for the rest of our deployment" Latris stroked his slightly greying beard, "You'll need to leave right away by the time you haul these off and return to the fleet, you'll be returning home to celebrate….. How old are you now?"

"I'll be 18 soon"

"Yes I forget, you look much older"

"I'm told that, will you be joining the celebrations?"

"I would but Kitla will still be running us like dogs"

"I guess I'm lucky then" the two laughed together as they reached the bow of the ship and saw approaching storm clouds

Latris sighed, "You really are leaving at the right time, that looks big" he looked up at Ovis

Latris had lost his leg in the battle against Amason, he had been an officer on the frigate _Razor _and a shell from one of the mercenary cruisers had struck the deck while he was on it, he remembers watching the shell fall on to the deck and smash through it, igniting the batteries magazine and reducing the ship down to its skeleton in seconds. He doesn't remember much after that, he was fished from the sea by the _Heart ripper _after the battle and woke up a few hours later with burns and a missing leg, he had made his way on to the deck with the help of some men to join the victory celebrations and that was when he saw it. A star appeared in the sky and shone brighter than any other and it continued to grow brighter and brighter until it was almost like the sun, in a roaring ball of flame the star smashed in to one of the cargo ships, sending shockwaves through the water and rocking all the ships anchored around it, he managed to get to the side of the ship in time to watch the blazing wreck sink and he saw it. In the centre of the carnage was an untouched capsule, not scratched or burnt or bent in anyway, and inside he saw him and he felt as if the fate of his world had shifted.

"Well I should be on my way soon" Ovis pat Latris on his back and brought the old sailor back to reality, "Good luck old man"

"And good luck to you, I don't envy you where you're going"

A slight scowl came across Ovis' face for a second it was replaced by a look of realisation, "Oh sorry to put this on you but the daughters of the governor of Porsain are onboard, could you take them back home, I'm sure their father has noticed already and isn't happy"

Latris chuckled, "You know what the admiral is like but I remember what it's like to be young so I'll cover for you boy, may Ortris keep your way calm"

Latris made the sign of the wave over his heart, making a circle with his thumb and index finger and placing each successive finger slightly higher, like a cresting wave.

"And may Kalsist keep your ship strong" Ovis returned the sacred salute

Latris returned to his ship and Ovis set about to getting his ships ready to tow the dark ships away, they could not be allowed to sink and take the bodies of those heretics with them, the ships had to be scrapped and purified and the heretic's bodies disposed of properly and there were only a few places on Krake that could be done because for a ship or a body to be reclaimed by the seas was an honourable end and not one heretics deserved.

Ovis and his ships towed the ship south-east for 3 weeks, even passing Kasain, the islands Atris and Asla based their fleets out of and where Ovis called home. The ship eventually caught sight of a lone island in the still ocean, it was an active volcano rising high out of waves with rivers of lava flowing from its peak. This was one of the many purifying isles on Krake.

Ovis and a few men took a boat to the island as his ships manoeuvred the dark wrecks close enough to be beached. The black sand beach was filled with the skeletons of previously destroyed dark ships, robed men and women meticulously dismantling them and taking the scrap up the volcano to be melted down in its fires to be cleansed of its taint and under the sands were the rotting bodies of hundreds of thousands of heretics.

A man wearing hooded brown robes like the others on the island approached Ovis, the primarch looked down at the man with visible disgust as he hobbled over, he was very old and had bandages wrapped around his eyes but the primarch knew there wasn't anything medically wrong with his eyes. The man was the high repenter of the isle and like every other person on the isle he was a dark eye.

A dark eye, sometime called mud eye, was someone who was a born sinner, on many islands on Krake babies born as a dark eye were killed or sometimes even blinded by their own mothers so no one finds out, they were people who were not afforded the holy protection against the dark gods and this was shown by them having brown eyes instead of the golden eyes of most people, hence the name dark eye or mud eye. They were the ones who crewed the dark ships and were the only ones who ever fell for the lies of the dark gods. They are hated and ostracised, their very presence a revulsion and a stain on any family's good name, so those that wish to fight against their heretical nature would travel to a purifying isle and take up a life of repentance with other dark eyes. They spend their days praying to keep the whispers of the dark gods at bay, purifying the tainted steel of dark ships in the volcano every purifying isle has or burying the bodies of a dark ships heretical crew. They were still reviled and hated but at least this way they were pious as well.

"I am the high repenter" the dark eye spoke in a small hoarse voice, "You bring more ships to be purified?"

"Yes" Ovis answered clearly unhappy to be talking to the old man, "A battleship and two frigates"

Ovis grabbed the handle of his sabre as he prepared to ask the next question, "Will you carry out your sacred duty and repentance?"

The old man kneeled down, "I will, I swear in the name of Zortris and Ortris and all their children and if I lie may the waves and the flames reject my body on my death"

Ovis released his sabre, "Then do so and find forgiveness in the eyes of the gods" with the ceremony over Ovis turned and headed back to his boat, eager to leave the isle and return home.

* * *

Next time: Home port


	11. Home port

11\. Home port

In the 18 years since sealing their alliance and finding their son, Atris and Asla had brought many islands and rival pirates under their control, the two now commanded vast fleets of warships and were quickly becoming the most powerful warlords on Krake. Legends spread far across the ocean of the terrifying Wolhark who tore his enemies to shreds with his roaring blade and the deadly Seeran who turned all who opposed her in to charred corpses and of course stories were told of their son. A giant who can walk the oceans as easily as he sails them, an immortal who can tear a battleship to scrap alone, unmatched in battle and strategy he was blessed by all the gods and none can match him. The spreading of these stories led to many islands and pirates joining them without conflict, afraid of the consequences, and a boost to their territory and forces.

The islands of Kasain were where the pirate lords directed and launched their forces from, it was where the two planned their raids and expansion and where they called home, it was constantly surrounded by a massive fleet and the islands also sported defensive emplacements. The northern most island of the three was a dedicated port and had hundreds of docks and dry docks dug in to it, there were large cranes for moving cargo, supplies and plunder to and from ships as well as large guns from old and disused ship, set to work as defensive turrets.

Ovis pulled the _Wave breaker _in to one of the many docks, the island was alive as an army of engineers and technicians swarmed the ships, assessing the damage and directing them to repair, refit or, if the damage is bad enough, scrapping. Ovis stepped off his ship and watched as the men ran about, doing a hundred different tasks to make even a single ship seaworthy, there were also sailors who had just arrived back and were heading to the central island to reunite with family and spend the plunder they earned on their voyage and there were also men preparing to depart, hyping themselves up with stories of the adventures and plunder they'll have. Ovis walked through the dock, those who recognised him, which were most people, were congratulating him and offering to buy him drinks and the primarch in return laughed and joked with them. The primarch could be quite charismatic when he wanted to be, although that only tended to be with women and those he called friends, but just about everyone who served his parents liked the boy and would follow him to the ends of the world.

"Finally back brother, I had heard you ran away from patrol, Kitla too much for you" A young man wearing an unbuttoned jacket that identified him as a captain walked up to the primarch, he was handsome; long dark hair, a winning smile and not a single scar or blemish on his face

"Little brother!" Ovis smiled as he pulled his brother in bear hug, "I didn't know you would be back so soon"

Sotris was the second son of Atris and Asla, and their only biological son, he wasn't as great as his older brother but at the young age of 17 he could be called the equal of both his parents, as keen minded as his mother and as ruthless as his father, if his brother hadn't landed on Krake he would have been the perfect heir to the two.

"I heard you fought some heretics and from what I can see not a single scratch on your ship"

"I did but how was raiding with Admiral Lusow?" The two brothers walked across the island together, "Still basically a corpse"

"I don't think that old man will ever croak"

"Then I'll have some company" Ovis laughed, "Anyway how did it go?"

"The same as ever, fought mercenaries, raided merchants" Sotris shrugged, "We plundered a village on the island of Lostwai, not much of a fight but the slaves sold for quite a bit"

"Well it's more exciting than patrol, are mother or father back yet?"

"No but I'm sure they'll have plenty of presents for us when they return, in fact I saved a few of the best slaves we captured for you" Sotris told his brother, "Well not the best I kept those as a present to myself"

"And I'm working on a present for you although I've not finished it yet"

Sotris' birthday was only a few weeks before Ovis' and so the two normally celebrated it together and being the sons of two powerful pirate lords meant they would normally receive quite lavish gifts. The two rode together to the central island and made the trek up the long dead volcano to their home. The two parted ways and Ovis made his way to his section of the palace.

The palace had many complexes carved in to the dead mountain, mostly for the most important officers and their families but also for storage and meeting places to strategize. Ovis, with the help of some slaves, had cut out a vast complex for himself and furnished it accordingly with the many treasures he had plundered over the years, the primarch had many interests and there were just as many rooms to accommodate them all. Ovis' office reflected his disposition; the walls were tiled with scraps of steel taken from ships he had sunk and there was little bare rock left, overhead was a chandelier made from gold and decorated with diamonds that hung from near invisible silk threads, dominating the room was a great wooden desk that had been a gift from his father and was carved with the story of the battle with Amason and how Ovis was born, the chair that sat behind the desk was big enough for the primarch and made from the struts of scrapped ships.

The back wall of his office was covered in a board that contained many calculations and designs. The primarch looked over them all in an instant and sought out any mistakes but like with most things he did he found none. He looked at the design that had arisen from his calculations and careful contemplation, no one knew he was making this but it would change warfare and possibly everything on Krake.

Ovis left his office and retreated to his workshop where he would spend the next few days. A week after Ovis had arrived, his mother docked but he still didn't leave his workshop and only Sotris went to greet her.

Asla was starting to grow old but her beauty hadn't faded and she was far from being an old woman, she still had her lithe and deadly figure and her near flawless features. The pirate lady smiled when she saw her son waiting for her at the bottom of the ramp, she descended quickly and welcomed him with a hug, seemingly trying to break his spine, "Where's your brother?" she asked as she broke the hug and looked up at him

"He's been locked in his workshop building something for week, hasn't eaten or washed, I'd hate to be in there" Sotris told Asla, "I think it's a present for me but he's also requisitioned some engineers and slaves to build something on the side of the mountain so I'm not sure"

Asla could see what Ovis was having built from the harbour, it just looked like a ramp leading from near the peak of the mountain and out in to the air, the pirate lady wasn't quite sure what it would be used for but she trusted in her son's intelligence.

"So what have you brought me?" Sotris asked, clearly excited

"I still need to finish it but I know you'll love it" was all his mother told him before she headed for the boats to the central island

Less than a week later Atris returned, he was clad in gold chains and came with stories of islands he conquered and rivals he routed, the pirate lord was starting to grey slightly but that seemed to make him look better, he still only kept stubble on his chin and his muscular physique hadn't atrophied with age yet.

With everyone important gathered, preparations for the celebration were put in to motion.

The streets of the town at the foot of the mountain was filled with colourful decorations as the people living under the rule of the pirate lords were given a reason to celebrate and tables and food were brought out in droves for a feast. Near the peak, Asla worked to get their celebration ready; having just about every different fish or sea creature on Krake prepared in equally as many ways, getting dancers, musicians and other forms of entertainment and most importantly ensuring there was enough alcohol for everyone.

The party started when the sun set, the roof of the palace at the peak of the volcano was lit by many great torches and filled with the officers present on the island and their families as well as dancers and musicians moving through the crowd. The two brothers entered the party to cheers, Sotris went through the crowd and thanked people for coming while Ovis moved right to the alcohol.

The party went on for hours, people were drinking, singing, eating and dancing, and as time went on and everyone drank more things got even rowdier. Sotris was telling the story of battles he had fought against pirates and mercenaries to enraptured children and his brother did the same although his crowd was mostly the young daughters of officers and some of their wives.

"HEY!" Atris jumped up on to a table and silenced the crowd, he looked unbalanced and was obviously quite drunk, "We're here to celebrate my sons, I remember when they were born, one cost me half a freighter of loot and the other cost me half a year of peace"

Everyone laughed as the pirate lord held up his goblet, "But who could ask for better sons, I know Admiral Strass' son can't even walk"

"He broke his back fighting for you, you ungrateful coss" Strass laughed as he shouted from the crowd

"And I'm still a better captain than you" the aforementioned son heckled from his chair

"Disputed but we should move on since there are two better captains than all of us here" Atris waved his two sons forward, "They've become men and have fought bravely on behalf of me and their mother so besides all the gold and glory and women they get we should reward them, I'd do the same for all of you"

Ovis and Sotris made their way to their father as he climbed down from the table, "Ovis, my boy, you grew too big too fast, making clothes for you has been a nightmare but you've only had that sabre for a bit too long" Atris snapped his fingers and two people brought a large box over and presented it to Ovis, "I hired the finest weaponsmiths on Krake and kidnapped a few others, I'm sure you'll love it"

Ovis opened the box and laying inside, wrapped in cloth, was a bolter more than large enough for him to wield. It was beautifully crafted, one side had a life like picture of a Wolhark etched in to it; the sleek body, razor sharp bone fins and knife-like teeth captured in amazing detail. On the other side of the weapon was a Seeran; its spear like tentacles, gaping maw and rows of needle like teeth etched in so much detail that the primarch almost expected it to screech like a Seeran too. Ovis moved it in his hand and tested the weight of it, it would be far too heavy for a normal man to shoot but it felt just right for him. He pointed it off in to the night sky and pulled the trigger, a great boom, almost like a ships cannon, echoed across the island as a bolt flew from the gun and in to the sea.

Ovis smiled as he placed the bolter back in to its box, "Thank you" his father gave him a pat on the arm before turning to Sotris

"Do I get a giant gun as well?" he asked sarcastically

"Kinda, Sotris, my lad" Atris looked his son in the eyes, "You've captained small ships for far too long, it's no place for a son of mine, so while I was kidnapping those weaponsmiths I also captured some shipwrights"

A giant grin spread across Sotris' face as he realised what his present was, Atris grinned back at him, "I had built for you a great ship, the latest technology and most advanced weapons money could buy, it's down in the harbour right now, you can take it out after the party"

Sotris pulled his father in to a hug, they stayed like that for quite a while until Asla came in and broke them up, "Alright, your father has given you fine gifts but I am sure mine are better"

"Do you know how much those cost me, I doubt your presents are better"

Asla grinned at her partner before turning to her sons and the crowd, "I told everyone I was out raiding for the past 4 months but I was really doing the one thing my partner hates doing… fishing"

Atris laughed, "So where you the one who caught this feast we're eating? That is a nice gift"

"I was not fishing for Hacot or Dalmo, I was fishing for Gagaradon" The crowd fell silent at the name of the beast and Atris' grin dropped

Gagaradon, the black beast of the deep, was a feared creature of the sea that had jaws that could snap a battleship in half and tentacles that had pulled many ships and their crew down to the depths of Krake's oceans. They normally grew to be as long as battleships and while they mainly ate smaller fish they would also target ships, their black scales were so hard and their skin so thick that not even the largest ship cannons can put a hole in one, the only way people have managed to kill one is by burning out its insides and that is not easy. Dies is slightly misleading since the Gagaradon is also called the undying beast as the thing never truly dies and armour made from its scales has been know to heal itself after receiving damage.

"I lost many ships in the fighting but I got one" Asla clapped and two servants brought out two more boxes

The two brothers looked at the boxes before them with disbelief, they opened them and each pulled out a long coat made from a scaly looking black material, they both quickly ripped off the jackets they were wearing and put the coats on. The material was thick but felt quite breathable, it flowed down their bodies to about half way down their shins and wasn't at all restrictive.

"But that's not all" Asla clapped again and platters filled with black meat were brought out, "Don't want to waste such prime meat"

Atris chuckled, "I never I never thought my hatred of fishing would be the reason I'm bested"

"Alright, alright, calm down everyone!" Navis Kismet stepped out before the crowd as everyone went to try the rare meat

Kismet still worked as Atris' first mate and was the pirate's closest council, even closer than Asla. It was clear to everyone that, besides the added strength given by Asla, the skills of Kismet had allowed Atris to expand his control and power and that was why the pirate lord always kept him close at hand. This constant proximity to Atris had allowed the first mate to become like a second father or uncle to Atris' two sons and he had raised them just as much as his captain.

The crowd quieted down as Kismet paced in front of the boys, trying to figure out what to say, "I've known you both since you were born and since the gods only gave me daughters, I think of you as the sons I never had"

Kismet made a signal and several servants wheeled over two things, they were taller than Ovis and both covered in tarps to hide what they were, the servants soon ripped the tarps off and revealed two beautifully crafted ship figureheads.

The first was a hooded man who had his features obscured, with only a cunning smile peaking out from the hoods shadow, his left hand was a large and almost monstrous claw that he held out stretched in front of him with gold chains flowing between his fingers like sand. The figure held his right hand at his side with a large sabre in his grip, as if he was striding forward about to strike.

The second figurehead was a sea creature, frozen as it burst from the waves, its smooth domed head rearing up as it held its massive jaws wide to show off its razor sharp teeth and eat the several small ships that were frozen mid fall in the creature's maw, giving a sense of the immense scale of the thing, it had two webbed fore limbs that ended with 4 needle like claws, around its shoulders and down its back were several hundred tentacles that seemed to flail as if they had a mind of their own.

The brothers looked at the two statues, in awe of the meticulous craftsmanship, Ovis broke out of the trance first and pointed to the second one, "I'll take the Krake" he claimed it from right beneath his little brother's nose

Sotris snapped out of his trance at that moment, "Oh come on, the other one is literally you, the Krake is mine"

The first figurehead was a representation of the god, Ovis, the God and patron of all pirates and raiders on Krake. The claw that is his left arm is said to be a curse given to him by Zortris when he was thrown from the heavens, he uses it to easily catch the loot given up in his name and uses the sword in his right hand to take what should have been given if it is not, his features are always obscured except for his smile to represent his cunning nature.

The second figurehead was of something equally as sacred, the legendary Krake, known as the world beast, the Krake is said to swim at the very floor of Krake's oceans and the tail of the beast trails just in front of its nose. It is believed that when the gods see fit to destroy the world of Krake they will call the beast up from the deep to swallow all the land on the world, some others believe that the world and the beast are one in the same and they live on the back of a slumbering Krake, or even one of the beast's eggs, and one day it will wake, or hatch, and end their world. The Krake was the ultimate symbol of power on their world.

"If you take the one with Ovis then I'll always be with you no matter where you go" the primarch reasoned as the two argued over which one would get the Krake figurehead

They debated for a few minutes before Sotris relented, knowing his brother wouldn't be persuaded against something once he had set his mind on it. The two brothers received many other presents from the assembled officers as well as absent officers, rulers of islands under their parents' control and the people of the town at the bottom of the mountain. It soon came time for the two brothers to give each other a present and Sotris was faster than Ovis for once.

"I got you all those slaves that helped build what ever that is on the side of the mountain but I also got you this" Sotris had servants present another box to Ovis

The primarch opened it to find a giant gold-plated harpoon gun in the shape of a Wolhark, it was about as long as a man and shot harpoons of about equal length, he could probably use it to spear ships just as well as any Whal.

"I could probably make harpoons tipped with the Gagaradon's teeth" Asla noted as marvelled at the craftsmanship

"You should have kept this for yourself brother" Ovis smiled as he pointed the harpoon gun at various things

"You think I didn't get one for myself as well" Sotris chuckled, "Now what is my present? Is it that ramp to nowhere?"

Ovis threw the harpoon gun to a servant, "The ramp is part of it, so follow me"

Ovis led the party back in to the palace and down the mountain. Just under the palace, Ovis had built a long deck that stretched for just over 200 meters and ended in a ramp in to nowhere, he had also excavated a large cave that went deep in to the mountain side. The cave was almost perfectly square and had semi circular rings of seats carved in to the back, all centred around something covered in a tarp. Everyone took a seat as Ovis prepared to show them what he had been working on.

"So you got me a strange room, good present brother" Sotris joked as he sat up front

"This is not just a present for you but for everyone here, it will change warfare and life as we know it on our world!" Ovis ripped the tarp off

The thing underneath was something no one present had ever seen, it was shaped like a large torpedo with a propeller on the front, a glass canopy over the mid-section and a tail on the back end, sticking out of either side of it were wings and it was angled up slightly by two sets of wheels just under the wings. Although no one had ever seen anything like it, it was obvious to some what it was for.

"Is that thing supposed to fly?" Atris asked as he noted the similarities it had to a bird

"No, it will fly and it will change how we fight" Ovis was confident in his calculations and designs, even if he's never tested the actual thing

Kismet stood up and examined the aircraft, "Who ever uses these will be fighting on a completely different plane to their opponents, they could avoid shells and bullets"

Atris and Asla also moved forward to examine the new machine, "I'm sure we could make a high enough calibre gun but the development of it will take time" the pirate lady mumbled as checked out what it was made from

Sotria and Atris were looking at the propeller and engine as others come to wonder at Ovis' miraculous invention, "It's good to look at but does it really fly?" Atris looked at his son, he didn't doubt for a second but he just had to see it fly

"This is my present to my brother" Ovis pulled back the canopy showing a cockpit big enough for three people or one person and a primarch, "You get in the back, I'll fly"

Sotris climbed in without complaint as Ovis started it up and everyone moved back. The engine roared to life and the propeller spun up until it was just a blur, Ovis grabbed the control stick and drove the craft forward, gaining as much speed as possible until the ramp threw them off in to the open air. Sotris was clearly tense as they were thrown off the ramp but Ovis showed no sign of discomfort or doubt.

"If this thing crashes I'll haunt you"

Everyone watched as the plane dropped for a second before pulling up and in to the air, they stared in wonder as they watched it climb higher and higher over the island. Inside Sotris looked out of the canopy and could see almost the entire island, the torches that lit the roof of his home, the many lights of the town and the reflection of the two moons on the ocean. Once they were in the air it was quite calm, except for the loud engine noise that filled the cockpit, Ovis angled them down and flew them down the island and skimmed them over the surface of the ocean.

"This was a good present" Sotris didn't need to raise his voice over the engine noise, he knew Ovis could hear him

"With the power of flight, no one will be able to stop us" Ovis' voice was powerful enough to be heard over the engine

"Yes, now let's land this, the night is still young"

"Ah, about that"

* * *

Next time: Embrace the innocent, kill the guilty


	12. Embrace the innocent, kill the guilty

12\. Embrace the innocent, kill the guilty

The Solran expedition and the newly arrived mist walkers looked at each other with suspicion, each had their weapons at the ready as they sized up a potential opponent, but the robed figures seemed oblivious to this tension as they all bowed at Aeoran's feet, foreheads pressed to the rotting ground. Aeoran was caught off guard by this sudden show of fidelity, he didn't know who these people were or where they had come from and they were naming him their king and the champion of their god, despite it all it seemed like they had come looking for him and posed little danger.

"Who are you?" the primarch demanded, trying to portray little as he continued to assess these new comers

The robed figures raised their heads but stayed on their knees, "We are the mist seers of Aeoror, we have foreseen your ri…."

The mist seers never finished their introduction as the head of their leader, the one kneeling in front of Aeoran, lost his head, one second it was there and the next it was flying off in to the mist with only a bloody stump in its place. The mist seer became part of the ground as everyone stepped away from the primarch in shock, anger radiated off him like heat as the blood of the mist seer dripped from his knuckles.

"LIARS!" Aeoran roared, the sound certainly reaching the city far above, "You're the reason he's dead, your lies killed him"

"My lord, if we have off…."one of the mist seers tried to calm the primarch but his torso was completely destroyed in a single blow

Alrean looked on in utter shock, he had never seen Aeoran like this, they had fought together in the mist so he knew of the primarch's martial skill and power but Aeoran had always been focused and almost emotionless when he fought but this time he was fuelled purely by emotion and it was terrifying.

No one could move as they watched Aeoran unleash his full rage, grief and power on those who he blamed for his father's death. His fists were a blur as he punched the mist seers to pieces, the prophets not even given enough time to scream before their bodies was destroyed. It took only a few seconds to finish them all.

Aeoran stood amongst the pulverised remains, his bestial aura freezing every man there in fear, he quickly turned his gaze on the accompanying mist walker.

Kasadiel couldn't move as he looked in to the pitch black eyes of Aeoran, his body was shaking in fear, even more than when he first descended. For the very first time in his life he wanted to run and cry but he was too afraid to turn his back on Aeoran, convinced that he needed to keep eyes on the primarch in case he made a move even though he knew very well that being able to see Aeoran would make no difference if he decided to attack.

"Who are you?" Aeoran's rage was clear as he stared down the mist walkers

Kasadiel drew on all his courage and took an uneasy step forward, "I am Kasadiel, guild master of Aeoror's guild of mist walkers, we couldn't serve a king who would betray a mist walker as venerable and honourable as you" he fell to his knees along with the rest of his men, "Please let us serve you"

Aeoran let out a deep exhale as he calmed himself, he looked at the mist walkers kneeling before him in the bloody remains of the ones who brought them here. None of them had betrayed him like that bastard king and none of them had known about his plans, they were innocent. Aeoran calmed himself completely as he walked to stand before Kasadiel.

"I will most likely end up destroying Aeoror before all this is over"

The guild master kept his head bowed, "I know that but can I beg you to spare as much of the city and it's people as you can and focus your wrath on the King and his people, they are the guilty ones"

Aeoran looked at the kneeling force of mist walkers, they would be valuable additions to his fighting force that he certainly needed. Without a word the primarch turned away from the mist walkers, he picked up his father's body and started for home, his comrades close behind.

"Come along, we have a long trek" he called back to the slightly confused mist walkers, they quickly got to their feet and followed

Casiel, the top advisor to King Radiel of Aeoror, ran through the halls of the palace, he pushed through a crowd and in to one of the rooms in the medical wing of the palace. Laying on the bed was the commander of the guard, Kasrean, he had bloody bandages around his stomach and his skin was paler than normal. Casiel pushed the crowd of onlookers out and shut the door, he moved over to the commanders bedside.

"Kasrean, what happened?"

"The mist walkers and mist seers are traitors, all of them"

That was the last thing he wanted to hear, things were going to hell in the city and its surrounding holdings since the "death" of Aeoran, they had tried to spread the story of his death but rumours of his miraculous survival had sprung up and even stories of him building an army in the mist, now with two of the most respected organisations abandoning the city for the mist they would not be able to stop rumours of Aeoran from spreading like wild fire.

The primarch had built quite a reputation as a mist walker before he came to Aeoror and now it was helping to fan the flames of dissent, Casiel knew he would have to take drastic measures to ensure the continued survival of Aeoror, he may even have to sacrifice the king but that was the last resort.

Casiel sighed as he stood, "Rest up friend, we'll certainly need you in the coming days"

The advisor opened the door and found a guard about to knock on the other side, "Lord Casiel, the King has summoned you immediately"

Again, Casiel was running through the palace as he got to the throne room with all haste and found a gruesome scene. The small squad of guards that stand sentry in the room were completely slaughtered and sitting on the throne was the head of a giant Fenson with an axe lodged between its eyes. The message was clear, the Fenson was commonly known as the lesser Fen for its similar appearance to the great beast, who's head served as the symbol of the city, and the axe was meant to be the axe of Aeoran, the primarch was telling them he would destroy Aeoror and he had placed the message at the very centre of power without anyone even knowing he was in the palace.

King Radiel stood in the centre of the room, ranting and raving at the guards, Casiel reluctantly moved to his king's side as he was berating a guard and demanding Kasrean to come and answer for this breach.

"Kasrean is currently recovering from injuries your majesty" Casiel made his presence known

Radiel turned to his advisor, the absolute panic clear on his bloated features, "Have you seen this Casiel! Aeoran is alive and he's coming for me, he could've killed me!" the King's eyes were wide with fear as he ground his teeth, a nervous tick he had, "I want you to double the guard. No triple, he won't be satisfied with a message next time, WHERE THE HELL IS KASREAN!"

The king was clearly becoming unwound and the guards were starting to get nervous, Casiel placed a hand on Radiel's back and tried to calm him, he needed to get the king alone to tell him of the betrayal of the mist walkers and the mist seers. Rumours about the two orders abandoning the king were probably already swirling since Kasrean had quite a public fight with the mist walkers, so the common people have probably already figured out that the mist walkers have turned but the mist seers were quite secretive so they might be able to keep their betrayal under wraps but the king needed to be informed without the guards present.

Radiel seemed to be calming down, Casiel leaned close so only the two of them could hear, "We need to talk in private your majesty"

The king's panic flared up again as he pushed Casiel away, "No, no, no, he'll get me if I'm alone, he's here right now, HE NEVER LEFT!" The king saw the phantom of Aeoran in every shadow

The King's paranoia made it impossible to discreetly inform him of their situation, Casiel sighed as the near catatonic King gave him only one choice, the advisor turned to one of the guards, "Take his majesty to his quarters and keep guards on him around the clock, inside and outside" Casiel turned to leave the throne room, "And someone get rid of that Fenson head"

Casiel moved as quickly as he could, with the King unable to make decisions there was only one way to at least mitigate the on coming crisis. In the same wing as the King's quarters were the quarters of many other important people, including Casiel's own, and the advisor was heading to one of them.

The guards posted outside let him in without complaint, as he entered he heard the soft sound of a tulet's strings being plucked, he followed it and found who he was looking for plucking at the instrument with his back to Casiel.

"Casiel, I expected you to come after I heard the rumours" the young man put down the tulet and stood to face Casiel, he was slim and looked in his early 20s with midnight black hair and almost translucent skin, "Father has gone mad due to the recent security breach"

The only person Casiel could turn to with the King in the state he was in was his Eldest son, Prince Eroiel, with his father unable to govern it was the Prince's duty to step in. Eroiel was a smart man and very well educated but Casiel still had his doubts that the young Prince could lead them out of the ever-worsening situation.

"Tell me everything that is going on" the Prince offered Casiel a seat as he took his own

The people of Solra had been busy while Aeoran was recovering the bodies of their dead, they had been building and restoring many buildings and their little town was running without any problems. Everyone had a place to live, land to farm or graze their herds on and some people had either reopened their old businesses or opened completely new ones. They had also been busy crafting 30 stone sarcophagus' for the dead, the best stone carvers among them had worked day and night to complete them and even managed to carve the likeness of all the betrayed on the sarcophagus lids, the coffins had been placed in the great temple and stood empty, awaiting the bodies.

Aeoran returned to Solra with much fanfare as the people chanted his name and showered him with praise as he walked through the gates. Kasadiel was amazed at what Aeoran and his people had built in the cursed city, he had never visited in his career as a mist walker but he had always heard the city was swarming with beasts and no man could survive there, but now he saw children running through the streets and the elderly hobbling along as if there was no danger and there truly was none.

Aeoran carried the body of his father as he ignored the crowd and headed straight for his mother, he knelt down and laid the wrapped body at her feet, she didn't say anything as she knelt down and just looked at it.

After a few minutes of silence she finally spoke, "I always thought he was annoying when we were young" Elia thought back to when the two of them were young, "Loud and always trying to show off, he never grew up no matter how much I tried to make him"

Aeoran smiled as he remembered growing up with Aldean as a father; his strangely morbid jokes, his casual disregard for rules and the many things he taught the primarch, even the useless things. Aeoran placed a hand over his face as he felt the tears flow, it may not be revenge but at least he could honour his father and the ones who died because of him.

There was a large ceremony as the bodies were entombed in the temple and people made prayers to Urgel; the god of life, death and decay, they made sacrifices and lit incense as they finally put their dead to rest.

With their dead properly put to rest, the people of Solra planed their next move. The people had mostly refurbished and cleared out the royal palace and decided, without consulting him, to make it Aeoran's residence and their centre of government, the primarch couldn't really complain since he was planning to build an empire across his world so he had to rule from somewhere.

Aeoran sat on the throne of Solra, he cut the imposing figure as he held his axe and looked down at those assembled in front of him. His mother stood to his left and Alrean to his right, the elders of the village were present as well as some of the most skilled men they had. Kneeling before Aeoran was Kasadiel and his assistant, Samiel, their heads bowed as the king decided what to do with them and their mist walkers.

"Why have you come to me?" Aeoran asked

"Our King betrayed your trust, he attempted to kill you on baseless rumour and lied to his people about it" Kasadiel explained as he kept his head bowed, "Many in the city know the truth but can't speak out for fear of being silenced but I couldn't serve a King who would be so underhanded, I and everyone who followed me know you'll make a better king, of Aeoror and our whole world"

Kasadiel looked deep in to Aeoran's eyes, pleading with him to recognise the truth and not kill them solely because they were from an enemy city. He could almost see Aeoran deliberating with himself as he came to a decision on Kasadiel's fate.

"How many in Aeoror do you suppose oppose the King?" Aeoran asked

"I can't give you exact numbers but there was always a group of men complaining about him in the taverns, if I had to estimate, almost half would turn coat if given the option, more if faced with you"

"Well that is good news" Aeoran thought carefully on the idea, "If you betrayed your king, I don't think you walked out of the main gate"

"No, the mist seers showed us tunnels under the city that led to the mist" Kasadiel understood what Aeoran was thinking, "They were complex but I know some of the men would have memorised them"

"Alrean, gather a small force of men"

"Yes, I'll brief them on their mission after the meeting" Alrean bowed his head slightly

Pretty much everyone understood what Aeoran was planning without having to ask. Knowing there was anti royal sentiment, all they had to do was send in a few agents who could discreetly stoke the fires and when the time was right for their invasion, those agents could sabotage the enemy as well.

"Kasadiel you and your men are welcome in Solra, they will lead my agents in to Aeoror and aid them in building a movement against its King"

Kasadiel quickly bowed his head in thanks, "Thank you, although my men are most likely wanted and will need to stay out of sight"

Aeoran simply nodded and sent them out before turning to one of the men that stood in on the meeting. He was a middle-aged man with the same pale skin and black hair of everyone on their world, he had strong broad shoulders and calloused hands, he was Fariel and, after Aeoran, he was the smartest man in the city.

"And how is your project going?"

"It's hard to study the black stone ward without deactivating it but we have found some research that the old Solrans did on it, we're still trying to figure out most of it but I do believe we can remake the ward, with enough time"

Aeoran had expanded the group that knew about the black stone ward under the great temple and had tasked Fariel and a small trusted group with figuring out how it functioned and building one of their own, and maybe making it portable. Fariel was also tasked with discovering and deciding what to do with what ever was powering the palace.

"How about finding the power source?"

"We discovered a reactor under the palace, its systems are a mystery to us but we believe that when the city fell and people stopped maintaining it, it went it to some kind of reduced power mode" Fariel explained what they had found and what conclusions they had drawn, "It might have been responsible for powering the whole city but with its current output it can only power the palace and the ward"

"Can you get its output up?"

"Not right now but I have people working to understand the writings that were left behind on it, we will be able to mostly understand it in maybe two months"

"Good see to that" Aeoran sent Fariel off to see to his duties as he turned his mind to the final matter of business, and the most important.

They have recovered their dead and sent a message to Aeoror, Radiel would quickly figure out they were in Solra but sending any force would be suicide and the city no longer had any experienced mist walkers, so they were safe but they still didn't have the numbers to take on Aeoror. Aeoran considered his position and options for a few seconds before he came up with a plan.

"Where is the closest city to Solra?" Aeoran asked

"Well the closest city is Aeoror to the north" One of the elders spoke up, "But I assume you mean any other city, the closest should be Waloror, it would take you almost 2 months to trek that far through the mist"

"I will take 200 men and go to Waloror, they will bend to me" Aeoran declared

"200 men will not be enough to force a city to surrender and many of them will die in the mists" Another elder pointed out a flaw in his plan

"There are many villages and towns between us and Waloror, if my legend isn't enough then I'm sure 200 men will be enough for them"

Alrean smiled at his friend and king, "I'll get the men ready, we'll leave in a month"

An overly eager Alrean was about to head off before Aeoran stopped him, "I'm sorry Alrean but you have to stay here"

"What!?" he was shocked, "I'm completely healed you saw that when we recovered the bodies"

"I know" Aeoran knew Alrean's injuries were healed but his friend would never be combat able again but there were other things he could do, "I need someone I can trust to look over our people"

"They survived while we were both gone and your mother is here" Alrean debated

"I know but we can't fully trust Kasadiel or his men, you're the only one I can trust to keep an eye on them" Aeoran placed a hand on Alrean's shoulder and looked him in the eye, Alrean saw the emotion in his eyes and the desperation to keep his friend safe. HHe sighed as he relented, he never could say no when Aeoran insisted on something.

"Fine but you have to come back, I don't want to be king of this mess forever"

Aeoran laughed at the joke, his friends dark humour reminding him of his father.

* * *

Next time: Ascension of the Emperor


	13. Ascension of the Emperor

13\. Ascension of the Emperor

Sasiel was quite a young man for the position he was in, barely 30 and already the lord of Gordra. His father had caught a fever and the town his family had spent generations nurturing and ruling was passed to his hands, the young noble had spent his time rebuilding many of the bridges that had fallen in to disrepair while his father had been bedridden and reconnecting the town's trade networks.

Gordra was a trade town that lay on the path from Aeoror to Waloror, any trade between the two major cities had to go through Gordra and the town was rich for it, even balloons travelling between them would be forced to stop in the town to refuel half way through the trip. The town was in one of the best positions on the planet since its proximity to both cities meant that neither would try to annex them for fear of provoking the other and starting a war, so they were left to their own devices, although Aeoror had been getting much more aggressive lately and Sasiel did fear they might risk war and annex Gordra anyway.

Sasiel walked through the markets of his town as these thoughts plagued him, Aeoror had recently razed a small village that they saw as growing to challenge them and rumours were flying in every direction and contradicting each other; some say that the villagers survived or that they all turned in to beasts or even that they attacked Aeoror and destroyed it by summoning Fen and a thousand other rumours that he was sure were either completely false or barely half truths. The one thing that was consistent with all the stories was that the razed village was being led by a giant that could split mountains and kill a man with a simple look, the giant Aeoran.

Sasiel considered this as he politely greeted his people with a wave or a smile, all the stories about the giant were pretty consistent, at least more consistent than the stories of what happened to his people, Aeoran was a giant who was blessed by the gods with strength and genius, he was an immortal who could only be bested by the gods and Aeoror had killed him, at least according to Aeoror but others said he was alive.

The rumours swirled and made it difficult to figure out what was truly going on, they had also lost contact with some of the villages to the north, but it was clear to the lord of Gordra that a great shake up of the powers of Solaero was coming and Aeoror might not end up on top by the end of it, so he had to figure out who was going to be at the top at the end and offer his support early, this was the difficult part of ruling but it was also the most exciting it would get for the young ruler.

The lord of Gordra was ripped from his thoughts as one of the town guard ran up to him, the young man wearing a chest plate and helmet gave a quick salute before reporting.

"An army has appeared outside the gates and are demanding entrance" The guard sounded like he couldn't believe what he was saying

"Outside the gates!" Sasiel almost choked when he heard the news

They had travelled through the mist, an army of men skilled enough and crazy enough to brave the mist just to attack them was a terrifying thought but the fact they were unknown was even worse, who had made the move, had Aeoror finally taken the step they always threatened to or had Waloror taken the initiative and struck first.

"What banners were they flying?"

The guard took a moment to consider his answer, like it was even more ridiculous than the fact an army attacked through the mist, "They flew no banner I've heard of, it was the severed head of Fen struck by the axe of Aeoran"

Sasiel had never learned of any city bearing that heraldry, Aeoror only flew the severed head of Fen and Waloror flew a depiction of a Nolate, a digging beast, it couldn't have been either of the cities and the axe of Aeoran was the heraldry of Old Solra. The noble took a few seconds as he struggled to think of a response to this unknown enemy, he couldn't react properly if he didn't know who they were, as he strained a thought suddenly came to him.

All the heraldry had some meaning; Waloror's displaying the tunnelling beast to represent the many tunnels of the city, Aeoror's shows their dominance over even the mightiest beast Fen and Solra's showed that they still wielded the power of the legendary king. Sasiel tried to piece together what this new banner was saying; Fen being struck down by Aeoran, Solra resurgent, Aeoror being struck down by Aeoran, Aeoror being struck down by Solra. It came to Sasiel in a flash, he knew who was at his gates and it might end up being a blessing.

"Was their leader a giant?" Sasiel asked the question that would confirm his suspicion

"Yes, he would be able to climb over the gate easily"

"Only let their leader and a small group of men in, show them to my audience chamber"

The residence of the lord of Gordra was carved in to the mountain overlooking the town, long ago a façade had been carved in to the mountain to make it look like a grand residence but years of weather had smoothed it out until the only indications of the residence were the gate and windows that led in. the lord's audience chamber was at the heart of the residence, it was a large chamber with a fire trench running from the door to the foot of the lord's throne and providing the room with light while tables and chairs flanked either side.

Sasiel sat on a simple wooden throne with guards either side of him, advisors and a handful more guards waited in the wings, he glared at the great doors directly opposite him as he waited for the leader of the mysterious army. If it was who he thought it was and what he had heard was true then his coming could be a blessing and would explain the lack of communication from the settlements to the north.

The doors soon creaked open and several guards escorted a giant and several of his own armed men in to the chamber. Sasiel dismissed the guards escorting them and relaxed slightly as his suspicions had been confirmed. Aeoran stood before the fire trench, haloed by its orange light, he wore a simple white robe that was without stain despite his time in the mist, on his head was a silver crown with swirls of grey steel worked in to it, the light of the fire reflected off its mirror like surface and made it look as if he wore a crown of fire.

"I am Lord Sasiel of Gordra" he spoke with all the authority he had as he forced himself to stare in to the dark eyes of the giant who towered over him, "I'll assume from your stature that you are Aeoran"

"King Aeoran of Solra and all Solaero" a man carrying a spine tipped spear corrected him

Sasiel didn't address the man and kept his focus on Aeoran, "You claim our whole world as your domain?"

Aeoran held the stare with little effort, "Yes, now would you prefer to join through an agreement or by force?"

"I can't simply hand over my lands, the people will not accept it and my ancestors will curse me" Sasiel tried to keep his calm as his heart beat a thousand times a minute, "An agreement might be possible if you tell me what your plan is and what you can offer Gordra"

Aeoran simply nodded, "I am marching to Waloror to bring them in to my empire but I need an army, I've already gathered over 1000 men from towns and villages north of here who have pledged their support" the giant paced before the fire trench as he explained the situation, "I want you to recognise me as your king and supply as many men as you can to my army, in return you'll get to keep your position and you'll be supplied with advanced weapons reverse engineered from those found in Solra"

"Gordra has played a balancing act between Aeoror and Waloror for centuries, we joined neither to placate the other, joining you might force action by both of them" Sasiel was partial to joining the king but he needed to put up a show for the officials watching, he can't be seen to just be handing over his people to an outsider, "We don't have the strength to resist one of them let alone both, can you guarantee the safety of my people?"

"I can" Aeoran answered with no hesitation

"How?"

Aeoran signalled two of his men forward and they dropped a box at the young lord's feet, they opened it and showed him hundreds of carbines, "They will be able to punch through any armour Aeoror has and you'll be supplied with ammunition and body armour more than capable of protecting your men, our production is limited at the moment but it is increasing by the day" Aeoran stood between the lord and the fire trench, bathed in a halo of light the giant's black eyes looked right in to Sasiel's soul, "Now would you prefer to use them or have them used against you?"

Sasiel smirked, this was as good a deal as he would get, "I have little choice if I want my people to prosper, I'm sure my men could defeat your men if you weren't here, you could take this town by yourself" Sasiel stood from his throne and looked up at Aeora, he soon fell to his knee and bowed his head, "I, Sasiel of Gordra, pledge my loyalty and people to you, Aeoran, and recognise you as my rightful king and ruler. Let the Gods hear my pledge"

"Then rise Sasiel of Gordra and rule in my name"

Sasiel stood and looked back up at Aeoran to see a smile break out across his face, "Now night is almost here and my men will need somewhere to sleep"

"There are barracks here that can house your men"

The two sat and talked for hours as they hashed out the details of Sasiel's fealty; how many men needed to be equipped, how supplies were to be transported and how they were to be taxed.

Aeoran left Gordra in the morning with 1700 men behind him.

They had been trekking through the mist for about a month and beasts had attacked the army several times but their numbers and skill, as well as the presence of Aeoran, had meant that their casualties were minimal.

The villages and towns they visited all had different reactions to an army appearing from the mist and they all had been convinced to join Aeoran without bloodshed, mostly by stoking their fears of Aeoror's imperial ambitions, they all supplied as many men as they could spare; 10, 50 or sometimes 100 or more. In exchange for their fealty, Aeoran supplied them with weapons he had made and scavenged from Solra and he had been receiving reports by Kawl of the boost these new territories were giving Solra. Everything was going according to plan and his empire was slowly growing but his gains up to this point would look like childsplay compared to his main goal.

Aeoran and his army marched forward, for days and weeks, stopping at every village and town on the way, the primarch would meet the local leaders while some trusted men would tell the people what he was trying to achieve, if he couldn't convince the leadership of his goal then he would rile up the population to help him overthrow their rulers and install a friendly one. Aeoran and his men did this for another month before they arrived at the foot of Waloror.

Commanding 3200 men, all armed to the teeth and dedicated to Aeoran's cause after hearing his reasons and his dream for their world hundreds of times, they marched up the path to the city and within the day they were at the gates, to the complete shock of the guards stationed there.

Waloror was a mountain city in the most literal sense, it began life as a mining settlement and with little flat or arable land on the peak the people took to living in the mining tunnels. On the outside the mountain containing the city looked like a regular, untouched mountain but a closer look will reveal hundreds of carved out entrances and windows climbing all the way up to the peak. The path up the mountain led straight to two massive stone gates that had the image of a man holding a mountain carved in to them, slits carved above the gate allowed for guards to look out for returning mist walker parties.

It had been a quiet day for the guard on duty, no mist walkers were due to return, all he had to do was sit around, drink and occasionally look out a window but that all changed when the sound of thousands of stomping feet reached his ears. He looked out to see nothing until a giant shadow emerged from the mist and at his back were ranks of armed men, an army so big that it stretched back in to the mist, hiding who knows how many more men.

"W-who are you?" the guard nervously shouted down to the giant that stood at the head of the army

"I am Aeoran, King of Solra, I have come to talk to your king"

Unsure of what to do, the guard sent a messenger straight to the king.

Carsiel III of Waloror was a young man, at only 29 he was the youngest king on Solaero but his age didn't make him a fool, he had risen to become king by pushing aside his older brothers without anyone being any the wiser; it was easy to drunkenly fall down an old mine shaft or be unlucky enough to get caught in a cave in or even have a loose rock fall on your head. He had heard of Aeoran long before he ever made his disastrous trip to Aeoror, he never believed Radiel's bogus story about an attempted coup and believed Aeoran's death to be a waste but his interest was peaked when he heard rumours of the giant's survival. Carsiel saw the skill and genius it took to bring the four villages on his peak together without strong military force and now he was witnessing that skill again as he received message after message from villages and towns under his control, each and every one of them renouncing him and declaring their support of Aeoran.

The tunnel king made his way down the main causeway that led straight from his palace at the centre of the mountain to the main gate in to the city. Like all the tunnels of Waloror, it was lit well by the massive power plant at the heart if the mountain, the great tunnel split off every few feet to lead even deeper in to the mountain and different residences and businesses. Carsiel was accompanied by a squad of his personal guard as they cleared a path through the crowds that normally occupied the highway, all traffic parted as their king made his way to the city gate.

Aeoran stood before the great gates of Waloror alone with his axe in hand, his army standing a few feet behind him in perfect rank and file, he wore his crown and untouched white robes, he picked the robes to serve as a message of his peaceful intentions and as a show of his supernatural ability that he was able to survive in the mist in only robes. The primarch didn't have to wait too long before the gates of the city opened and armed guards marched out in formation, in the centre stood their king. The people of Waloror were known to be even paler than the average Solaeron and the king was no exception, he wore robes the colour of the mists with a bronze crown resting on his head, he squinted slightly in the dull light coming through the clouds, his eyes not use to natural light.

Aeoran walked forward and the King of Waloror's guards split as he walked to meet the primarch, "I welcome you, Aeoran, I am Carsiel III of Waloror" the king introduced himself, "I had been told you were dead"

"As much as Radiel wishes it were true, it is not but I assume you knew that long before I arrived"

"Yes, you've caused quite the uproar, much of my kingdom has abandoned me for you" Carsiel struggled to keep a neutral expression as the primarch's dark eyes stared in to his soul, "My advisors wanted me to launch an immediate offensive to stem the growth of your power"

"And why didn't you?" Aeoran asked, portraying less than the king

"The mist seers told me that you would ascend to rule our world" Carsiel noted a slight twitch in the primarch's face when he mentioned the mist seers, "Obviously Radiel's mist seers told him the same thing and he tried to stop it, where did that get him? His domain in uproar and a powerful foe growing ever stronger to destroy his legacy"

"So you've submitted to fate?" Aeoran asked

"I will only submit to fate as decided by gods and men" Carsiel quoted a small line of wisdom, "Your fate has been revealed to me but my own fate is still shrouded and so it is still in my own hands"

"What are you saying?"

"Your dress suggests you have come to talk but the axe and army suggest you've come for war, which is it?"

"I've come to bring your city under my rule"

Carsiel started to pace before the primarch as he looked back at the gates that led to his city, "For 3000 years my family has ruled this city, a long dynasty of kings, do you expect me to give up my crown for nothing?"

Aeoran took a step forward, "Keep your crown, I want your fealty and loyalty, I have designs for our whole world and I will not be able to rule it all from Solra, I will need men like you who know how to rule and govern vast areas" Carsiel turned back to look at the giant, "The villages that abandoned you for me will be returned to your governance, as long as they aren't punished, your kingdom will grow even larger as long as it is a part of my empire"

"Emperor Aeoran" Carsiel put the words out in to the word and considered how they felt

Carsiel looked up at the great gates to his city and then even higher to the peak of his home, continually hidden behind a blanket of grey cloud. There were many legends on Solaero but none more well known than the great king Aeoran, a giant of a man who slaughtered beast like they were livestock and who was destined to strike down the bloody red wolf. It was said that where Solra stands is where Aeoran found his axe, surrounded by the corpses of beasts and lesser men, Aeoran raised the axe and proclaimed himself king of a city and a whole world. The armour donned by the king of legend has a similarly miraculous story, Aeoran tunnelled in to the heart of a mountain to find the armour made for him by the gods, some even say that the first tunnel dug on Waloror was done by Aeoran to find his armour.

Carsiel smiled at the irony, he gave one last look back at Aeoran in his robes before heading straight for the gates, "I have something to show you, a gift for our new overlord"

Aeoran and a few trusted men followed Carsiel in to the city and along the great causeway to his palace at the heart of the mountain. The royal palace sat right in the centre of the mountain, massive stone pillars in an even bigger cavern, many pillars ran from the floor to the ceiling high above, each connected to the other by numerous stone bridges and in the middle of it all was a pillar at least 10 times thicker than the others and sprouting bridges to all the other pillars.

Carsiel led Aeoran in to his palace of pillars and through a complex maze of passageways and bridges as they made their way up and closer to the central pillar. A long walk later and Aeoran found himself at the very top of the central tower, looking down at the dots of people below with wisps of clouds hinting at a microclimate. The room that took up the very top of the centre pillar was empty except for a suit of armour standing dead centre.

The armour was expertly crafted, every ounce of care being taken in every part of it, it had a great bulk and stood as tall as the primarch. The plates, made from a metal that Aeoran couldn't identify, were stark white with swirls of grey running through it and made the armour seem as if it was made of mist. Mist rolled off of the armour from hidden vents and the helmets mouth grill. The primarch admired the armour, looking in to the red tinted lenses of the helmet as he saw himself wearing it.

"This is the armour of Aeoran" Carsiel explained, "My family has safe guarded it since we came to power and the family before us for who knows how long, this armour will only fit the one destined to rule our world"

Aeoran looked at the armour and felt no doubt that it was meant for him, it couldn't fit anyone else, no human could be that size, he reached out and touched the smooth cold surface.

_Take it_

His guiding voice whispered in the back of his mind as he instinctively disassembled the armour and put it on himself with no trouble. It was much lighter than he expected and felt more like a second skin than a bulky set of armour, he could move naturally and had a full range of motion.

"Fits perfectly" Carsiel commented as he kneeled to Aeoran, "We were always told we would bow to whoever wore that armour, fate will always play out no matter what you do it seems, my emperor"

* * *

Next time: Empire of mist


End file.
